My name is Janette Smith and I feel I am one of the lucky ones because my breast cancer has been caught in time, even though at 76 I am no longer offered breast cancer screening every three years. I am campaigning with the over 60s campaign group, Silver Voices, to end age discrimination in cancer screening services, for breast, bowel and cervical cancers, where there are arbitrary cut-off dates when you reach a certain age. 

In March this year I rang the Breast Care Clinic in Leicester to make an appointment for a mammogram. I am 76 and I was aware that from 71 I would no longer be called for routine checks, but I had kept diary reminders. I had no symptoms. Within a week I had an appointment and after further tests it was confirmed I had breast cancer. This was dealt with very quickly. I had a lumpectomy, I have tablets, and have had a five-day course of radiotherapy.  Fingers crossed this will be the end of my treatment although I will be monitored for the next five years. If I had waited for obvious symptoms to appear the outcome could have been much more serious, even life-threatening. Having spoken to a number of my friends I have been surprised by how many are unaware that automatic screening ends at 70. I shudder to think how many older women are getting late diagnoses of breast cancer because the universal screening service is no longer offered to them. 

The same considerations apply to bowel cancer screening, which ends at 74 across the UK, and cervical cancer screening which ends at the young age of 64. Yes, older people can ask to be screened as I did, but most will not present to a doctor until they have symptoms. The whole point of universal screening is to catch cancers early when treatment is more likely to be successful. And the age limit on regular screening is illogical as the incidence of most forms of cancer increases with age. 

So please sign my petition so that we can increase pressure on the NHS and politicians to end age discrimination for cancer screening in the UK.