Bowel cancer screening: Man who lost dad to disease out to improve odds

dvnbowe1 Stephen Paewai, with a picture of his father, who died of bowel cancer.

Stephen Paewai wants to change the odds in bowel cancer, especially among Māori and Pasifika.

The Dannevirke resident lost his own father in 1994 to bowel cancer and because of that, he's passionate about preventing the disease.

The bowel screening programme began as a pilot in a couple of DHBs in 2017 and Mid-Central DHB joined in 2019.

Paewai, a member of the DHB's consumer council, was asked to join a working party that looked at how the programme was going to be promoted in the region.

"It is known that I'm very interested in Māori health, improving Māori health, so I was approached."

Screening is offered to people aged between 60 and 74 in the region, with a letter and test kit sent out within four months of the person's birthday.

Those with a birthday on an even date would be sent the kits on the first year of the two-year programme and those with birthdays on an odd date would get theirs the next year.

Paewai believes the age range should be earlier for Māori and Pasifika, due to the fact they're more susceptible to such cancers, partly because of diet.

He says more Māori and Pasifika die from bowel cancer.

The test itself is relatively simple, but Paewai says he did procrastinate when he got his kit.

"I thought, 'oh I don't know about this' and here I am on the working group, I should know better, I should have done it straight away.

"Then when I'd done it I thought, 'what the hell was the problem here?'"

He says the difficulty is probably psychological.

He feels the test is extremely important for prevention.

"It's one of those cancers that, if you pick it up early, it's very treatable."

Some of the tests have picked up early signs of cancer, which people wouldn't have known about without being screened.

Or they'd know about it when the cancer was more advanced.

"Then it's starting to get difficult," Paewai says.

"You can do something about it, but the odds change."

The bowel screening programme is slowly being rolled out across DHBs.

Once it is fully implemented across the whole country, more than 700,000 people aged between 60 and 74 years will be invited to take part in screening every two years.

For information on the National Bowel Screening programme visit www.timetoscreen.nz or freephone 0800 924 432.