The National Bowel Screening Programme is free for people aged 60 to 74 years. It aims to save lives by finding bowel cancer at an early stage when it can often be successfully treated.

Bowel cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death in New Zealand. Approximately one-quarter of diagnoses are made when patients present to an emergency department, highlighting that many diagnoses are made late in the course of disease.

Bowel cancer isn’t just an ‘old person’s’ disease – around 30 Kiwis aged 50 or younger are diagnosed with bowel cancer every month. 

For a long time, bowel cancer has been labelled that, “an old persons disease”. And perhaps that is down to the fact that people over 50 were being diagnosed more often than those younger.

But over recent years, the bowel cancer rates for people under 50 are on a steady rise. 

After being diagnosed with Bowel Cancer at the age of 32, I shared my story to social media platforms only to discover there is a significant amount of people in their 30s going through the same thing, or have already lost their lives due to misdiagnosis.

I believe the screening age should be lowered to 35 to give others the chance of early diagnosis. Early diagnosis will also save on medical care in the long run!

Let’s change this and save lives!