Getting yourself screened for colon cancer

If you're a non-smoker in the UK, male or female, colon cancer is the most likely cancer to kill you.  1 in 15 men and 1 in 20 women are at risk of developing this type of cancer.

This needn’t be the case: colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to treat if it is detected early. The really good news is that this cancer is also preventable in nearly all patients, through regular screening.

Get yourself screened - properly, regularly - from your mid-40s to avoid dying from colon cancer

We recommend that you are screened every five to seven years for colon cancer, from your mid-40s.

High quality CT Colonography (a CT scanner-based test) and Colonoscopy are the most accurate current methods for examining the colon for cancer and its precursor, polyps.  The NHS is not able to offer these forms of screening to the whole population but that shouldn't stop you considering having one.

Screening is available on the NHS.  You should take up whatever is offered by the NHS as soon as you are offered it.  What is offered depends on where you live: