QA nurses meet Pompey players to mark 10 years of bowel centre

Pompey Football Club Teams Up with QAH Specialist Screening Practitioners
QA Bowel Cancer Team: Front row, from left to right: Julia Biles, Sally Barrett, Joe Mitchell, Carly Howes, Tracie Jarvis, Debbie Butler, Jane Rulf, Rose Duane-Moore, Debra Chivers, Claire Clapp — Pompey Football Club Teams Up with QAH Specialist Screening Practitioners QA Bowel Cancer Team: Front row, from left to right: Julia Biles, Sally Barrett, Joe Mitchell, Carly Howes, Tracie Jarvis, Debbie Butler, Jane Rulf, Rose Duane-Moore, Debra Chivers, Claire Clapp

To mark the anniversary of the Solent Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, nurses from Queen Alexandra Hospital met with players from Pompey.

The nurses went down to the club’s training facility in Copnor to promote the importance of screening for bowel cancer.

Since QA Hospital launched the scheme in Portsmouth, 604 cancers have been detected in patients who had no other symptoms.

Using the screening to detect the cancer early can reduce the risk of dying by 16 per cent.

Rosarie Duane-Moore, manager of the screening centre, said: ‘This programme has made a substantial difference for patients.

‘Pompey were keen to support and mark the anniversary when we got in touch with them.

‘We wanted to get their support and hopefully, if people see them backing it, they will come along for their screening.

‘It is great for is to reach this landmark.

‘Helping detect more than 600 cancers is brilliant.’

The centre has two different types of screening for different age groups.

The first programme is a Bowel Scope and invites people aged 55 for a one-off flexible sigmoidoscopy.

It looks at the last section of the large bowel looking for polyps. Although polyps are not bowel cancer, they can change into malignant cancer over a number of years so if found they are removed.

The second programme available is Bowel Cancer Screening and it is for 60 to 74-year-olds.

It identifies any blood hidden in peoples bowel motions.

If blood is seen then the person is invited to attend an appointment with a nurse to discuss and give details regarding further management. This could include a colonoscopy.

As previously reported in The News, April was Bowel Cancer Awareness Month.

Figures from Public Health England reveal only 57 per cent of people in the south east are completing the screening test sent to them.

Calls are now being made for people aged 60 to 74 to complete the test which can detect early signs of bowel cancer.

For more details on bowel cancer screening visit nhs.uk/conditions/bowel-cancer-screening.