Peterborough City Hospital team embark on awareness campaign to help increase early bowel cancer detection in bid to save lives

April marks Bowel Cancer Awareness Month the screening teams at Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon are helping to promote the importance of bowel health to visitors and patients in Peterborough and Huntingdon.

Bowel Cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK; but if spotted early, the more treatable it's likely to be.

More than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50 but bowel cancer can affect anyone of any age.

According to charity Bowel Cancer UK, more than 2,600 new cases are diagnosed in people under the age of 50 every year, however, the charity has said that nearly everyone survives bowel cancer if diagnosed at the earliest stage.

The North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust Bowel Cancer Screening Team is helping to highlight the message of screening at its hospitals.

The team is staging a series of awareness and information stands to offer advice to visitors, patients and staff about the screening process, as well as handing out leaflets and having screening kits on display.

In addition, the trust is supporting a nationwide initiative which last year saw the screening age for bowel cancer lowered to 50 in England.

This means that everyone aged between 50 and 74 is now eligible to receive an at-home easy to use poo testing kit as part of NHS England's bowel screening programme.

Trust bowel cancer screening programme manager Jane Minett said: “The screening programme helps to spot bowel cancer before symptoms start, so we would encourage anyone who is within the age range for the screening programme and receives their kit through the post to complete it.

“The bowel cancer screening programmes uses a test called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) in which a small about of poo is collected and sent to a lab where it is tested for the presence of blood, which cannot be seen by the naked eye.

“Screening can also help to find polyps which may be growing in the bowel. Polyps can become bowel cancer over time, so screening can help to find them so they can be removed before they do.”

Figures for 2025 compiled by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust show that the 60-74 age group have the highest engagement with almost a third (71.17 per cent) who were invited to submit a screening sample doing so.

For those aged 58 who were invited to screen, the take up was almost 65 per cent, with that figure dropping to slightly above 59 per cent for the 56-year age group and 56 per cent for those aged 54.

While bowel cancer can have no symptoms, other signs of cancer may include:

- Bleeding from the bottom and blood in poo

- Persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit

- Sudden and unexplained weight loss

- Being easily fatigued with no obvious reason or cause

- Pain or a lump in the tummy