Bowel Cancer Screening Debate
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Jim Shannon
Main Page: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)Department Debates - View all Jim Shannon's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Bowel Cancer Screening
Jim Shannon Excerpts(6 years, 2 months ago)
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Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered bowel cancer screening.
It is a great pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Roger, and I am glad that you have taken your seat.
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. Sadly, around 16,000 people die from the disease each year. It is estimated that between now and 2035, around 332,000 more lives could be taken by this awful condition. Nearly everyone will survive bowel cancer if it is detected at its earliest stage, but unfortunately only 15% of bowel cancer patients fall into that category.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman for securing the debate. Does he agree that early-stage cancers are not only easier to treat, but less costly for a cash-strapped NHS? That is why we need an effective screening programme that includes lowering the screening age to 50 and implementing the simpler and more accurate faecal immunochemical test. That would help to get the earlier diagnosis, to stop the cancer.
Nick Thomas-Symonds
I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the need for an optimal screening programme—I will come to that in a moment.
In Wales around 2,200 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year. Nearly half of those are diagnosed at a late stage. Approximately 900 people in Wales will die from bowel cancer every year, but 78% of patients will survive for one year or more, and 58% for five years or more. These figures are not mere statistics; every single extra day with the people we love is a great joy.
I lost my own mother, Pamela Symonds, to bowel cancer on new year’s day this year. She lived just under two years after her formal—too late, I am afraid—diagnosis. She was one of the 10,000 people diagnosed annually at the late stage of bowel cancer. I know only too well the impact that bowel cancer has on families.