Pioneering initiative to tackle bowel cancer

A pioneering health initiative targeting early detection of bowel cancer among young people is being rolled out at two Staffordshire hospitals.

A specialist nurse has been appointed at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to identify high risk patients and diagnose younger patients at an earlier stage.

The age criteria for screening currently stands at 60-years-old nationally. The scheme will be rolled out at Stafford and Cannock Hospitals.

The trust will also be able to offer family genetic screening for bowel cancer for the first time under the scheme, though to be the first in the country.

It has been introduced due to the fundraising efforts of mother Christine Woodward, of Rugeley, who set up the Martin Woodward Cancer Trust in memory of her late son, a Walsall Council employee.

Martin, a trading standards safety officer, died aged 36, within a month of surgery for the condition in 2005.

The nursing post will be based primarily at Stafford Hospital, with clinics held at Cannock Chase Hospital and has been match funded by the Martin Woodward Cancer Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mrs Woodward said: "A very big thank you to everyone who has helped us raise the £75,000 to help fund a new healthcare pathway.

"Martin died 23 days after surgery, from bowel cancer he did not know he had – early diagnosis could have saved his life.

"The launch of this project is the culmination of several years' hard work and we hope it will help prevent other families from experiencing what we have gone through – that has been our only aim from the start."

Specialist nurse Sunitha Rajan said: "If all goes to plan, it will mean that the signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer in those aged 18-59 will be recognised more frequently both by the public and by GPs".

She added she had been moved by Martin's story.