Professor Glen Doherty

Thank you.

Yeah, I think that's fair comment.

People don't like talking about it and a lot of people don't even like thinking about it.

Yeah, exactly.

I think people don't like talking about the sort of symptoms that might indicate bowel cancer.

And then they don't like the idea of doing a stool sample, say, for example, as part of the screening programme or as part of their...

assessment by the hospital.

And then they don't like the idea of having a colonoscopy, which is the test which is usually ultimately required to make the diagnosis.

So the screening programme called BowelScreen currently operates from, it invites people aged between 57 and 71 at present to every two to three years to send in or to take up an invitation for a stool sample.

Now they don't have to, some people worry that means you have to like send in a whole poo, which it doesn't.

So there's a little kit that's sent out.

So there's a little kit that comes out in the post and there's literally a little tube with a little plastic stick on it.

And you sort of stick the, you push the little stick into the poo and then put it into the tube.

That's pretty grim.

It's not a pleasant process, but honestly, it's not as bad as people think.

There's some very...

good videos, good materials on the Ball Screen Programme website if people are worried about this sort of process.

But it's actually very easy to do.

And they just pop it in the post and then most people will get a result within a week or two.

They'll be told if their stool sample is negative.