Kokova Magazine

With around 33,000 new cases each year, bowel cancer is England's second most common cancer and the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme can be a life-saver, as David and Jasmine discovered.

The Source spoke to Jasmine, who shares their story in the hope that it will encourage people to complete the bowel screening tests that are being sent out.

In April 2011, when David reached 60, he received an invitation through the post from the NHS for bowel cancer screening.

It arrived a few days after his birthday and he asked me if he should complete the test. I encouraged him to perform the test as I believe bowel cancer can show hardly any symptoms and that it is very important to look after yourself since you do not know what’s happening on the inside.

To complete the test he had to send stool samples by post. It does in fact sound worse than it is but the test is as simple as smearing a stool sample on a pre-treated card.

The first sample was sent off in a specially designed envelope and the result came back to say that it was in fact an inconclusive result and another sample was needed. The accompanying letter did explain that sometimes this can happen and a repeat is often necessary, so at this point David and I were not too worried and he repeated the test.

In fact, he had to do the test twice more and after the 3rd test he was invited to go to for bowel cancer screening at The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford because of abnormalities found in the results.

At the appointment it was explained that the consultant wanted to do a colonoscopy, as a precaution, just to make sure that everything was OK. David explained that he did suffer with piles and sometimes had some rectal bleeding so this could explain why the tests came back they way they did.

David found the colonoscopy very uncomfortable but his wonderful sense of humour helped him get through it. A few small polyps were removed from the bowel during the procedure and were sent away for biopsy.

Within a week David was called back to the hospital for a further appointment, where we were told he did in fact have bowel cancer. The biopsy has shown some cancer cells within the polyps. That hit home hard and obviously caused us both to be very worried and scared for the future.

David then had to go for a complete body scan, to find out if the cancer had spread, which he found very nerve racking.

Once again we went back for the results of that scan and were told that the cancer has not spread but they would need to operate to take out the section of bowel where the cancerous polyps had been.

A further colonoscopy was booked so that the surgeon could mark the site of the cancer within the bowel with a special dye to make it easier to locate the area during the operation.

Unfortunately the area where the polyps had been removed from had healed completely and could not be exactly pinpointed. The surgeon could however locate the area to within a 6-8 inch section of bowel by using the original results recorded.

The surgeon advised us that they may have actually removed all the cancer within the polyps and David may not have any other cancer in his bowel but they could not be certain either way.

Because of this David was given the choice to either have the planned operation but to remove a slightly larger section of his bowel (to make sure that the original polyp site was completely removed) or to wait for six months and then have a repeat colonoscopy to see if the cancer had returned.

David did not want to wait for six months just in case the cancer was still present and decided to go through with the operation. About two weeks later he was admitted to the hospital and the operation was a success. They didn't find any more cancer and he recovered very well.

He has to go back in July this year (2012) for another colonoscopy, just to make sure that the cancer has gone and he will continue to have further checks now to monitor this.

Throughout the whole episode he was treated very well, with respect and dignity. He did not have to have the operation if he didn't want to; in fact he could have backed out at any time throughout the period he was diagnosed with having cancer.

It was explained that if he hadn’t done the original test then I would have been making funerals plans for him in about 2-3 years time.

So please, if the tests come through the post DO NOT ignore them. Or if you have any symptoms and you are not sure about them, go to the doctors.

Don't leave it or it may be too late. Yes, it is scary but it could save your life. David was scared, so was I but we pulled through.

Both men and women can be affected by bowel cancer and nine out of ten people diagnosed with the disease are over 50.

Those with a family history of bowel cancer are more at risk but the sooner a patient is diagnosed, the better their chances of successful treatment.