Bowel cancer sufferers, survivors and their supporters gathered at Parliament on Tuesday to call on the Government to lower the age of eligibility for free bowel cancer screening tests.
Several dozen protesters met with ministers to raise awareness of the growing problem and to call for change in how the disease is diagnosed in Aotearoa.
The group was calling on the Government to lower the age for free screening by 13 years to match Australia’s age range of 45- to 74-year-olds.
Mother of three Jay Findlater was living with stage four bowel cancer.
She said it took eight months of appointments and several hospital admissions before she was diagnosed with the advanced cancer.
“Because of my age – being 38 – I didn’t fit into the box and they didn’t test and, yeah, and then it turns out stage four,” Findlater said.
Findlater said the time since her diagnosis had been “a hell of a year” and she was determined that other young families should not face a similar struggle.
Arini Poutu had survived for two years after being given three months to a year to live.
By the time she was diagnosed – at 55 years old – the cancer had spread to her lungs and liver.
“I spent most of my life in Australia. I returned to New Zealand to embrace Te Reo and raise my children here. So it’s kind of frightening that – if I had stayed Australia – I would’ve got screening and had a chance at life,” Poutu said.
Poutu said she didn’t want anyone else to die from what should be a preventable disease.
Matching Australian screening age
Health Minister Simeon Brown met with the protesters on Parliament lawn.
He told them he was determined to lower the age for screening but would not be drawn on when this would happen.
“We will match Australia. We’re committed to that. Access to colonoscopies is the key to being able to do that and that requires the capacity of the system to be able to deliver that and – as it increases the capacity – we will lower that age,” Brown said.
Health Minister Simeon Brown and Social Development Minister Louise Upston speaking with bowel cancer protestors outside Parliament. Photo / RNZ
‘You are never too young’
Board member Mike Killick said a report presented to the previous Health Minister Shane Reti showed there was capacity in the public and private health systems to do more colonoscopies.
But he said testing was needed at early stages to direct patients towards the investigative procedure more efficiently.
“That earlier detection is critical and a FIT [Faecal Immunochemical Test] test is pretty simple, it’s pretty cost effective and so it needs to be rolled out to get that earlier detection coming on through,” Killick said.
Bowel Cancer NZ support nurse Victoria Thompson said if detected early a person had a 90% chance of surviving bowel cancer, but if allowed to advance to stage three or four their chances dipped below 10%.
She said there needed to be a change of mindset in the health system so people who presented with symptoms at a younger age weren’t discounted.
“There does need to be a shift in the conversation that you are never too young and, although the symptoms can be a little bit difficult to detect, they need to be addressed and they need to be investigated regardless of how old you are,” Thompson said.
Rachael Ferguson. Photo / RNZ
Protest organiser Rachael Ferguson’s cancer was in remission following her diagnosis at 32 years old.
She said it was important to put real people dealing with bowel cancer in front of the Ministers.
“[We] absolutely feel heard, [there’s] still work to be done which we were expecting but it’s been a great turnout.
“We got to talk to the people we really needed to talk to and there was a lot of emotion around today. That has a really big impact when you’re talking to the face of our Government so I think today was a good outcome,” Ferguson said.
