Bowel Cancer Screening Posted or Updated on 30 May 2026

NHS England supported by Cancer Research UK has just launched the ‘Help Us, Help You – Bowel Cancer Screening’ campaign. The campaign aims to increase the number of people returning a completed bowel cancer screening test by raising awareness and encouraging people to complete and return their test.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. Yet the latest data shows that almost one third of people who were sent an NHS bowel cancer screening kit in England last year did not go on to complete it. Early diagnosis is vital, as detecting bowel cancer at the earliest stage makes you up to 9 times more likely to be successfully treated.

So if you’re aged 50 to 74, live in England and registered with a GP practice, you’ll be sent a kit in the post automatically, every two years.

The kit is quick to complete and can be done in the privacy of your own bathroom using the step-by-step instructions on the box. You only need to collect one tiny sample of poo using the plastic stick provided, pop it in the sample bottle and post it for free, to be tested.

If something is found, you will be invited to have further tests, usually at a hospital.

The test works by checking for tiny traces of blood, which may not be visible to the naked eye. Blood in your poo is one of the signs of bowel cancer, but does not always mean cancer. Instead, it could be a sign of piles or polyps (growths in the bowel). Polyps are not cancer but could develop into cancer over time.

So, the NHS is asking anyone who is sent a bowel cancer screening test to remember to complete it.

More information here