BOWEL cancer screening is to be offered to all people in their sixties in Southend, Rochford and Castle Point.

From Tuesday, all men and women aged 60 to 69 who are registered with a GP will be invited to take part in the NHS bowel cancer screening programme.

People living in south west Essex, which covers Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock, have been offered screening since September, 2008.

Bowel cancer kills 16,000 people a year and is the second highest cause of UK cancer deaths.

People living in Southend, Rochford and Castle Point are the latest in the county to be part of the national screening programme, which aims to detect bowel cancer at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be effective.

Basildon Hospital, the bowel cancer screening centre for south Essex, will send out invitations to more than 51,000 people in south east Essex over the next two years.

They will then be sent a simple test kit to complete in their home and return for laboratory analysis.

The lab test does not diagnose bowel cancer, but shows whether further investigations are needed.

To date more than 3,500 people in the south west Essex area have completed and returned their kit. Of these, 58 people have had an abnormal result and have been invited for further testing.

So far the programme has detected and started treating six patients with bowel cancer.

More than 15 patients have had growths removed, which could have potentially developed into cancer if left untreated.

Dr Javaid Subhani, consultant gastroenterologist at Basildon Hospital, said: “Bowel cancer does not have to be a killer. Caught early, the chance of cure rises dramatically.

“The bowel cancer screening programme will enable us to catch cancers earlier.

“It starts with a simple test done in the privacy of one’s own home, and it may save your life. I would strongly urge people to make use of this new screening service.”

People receiving a bowel cancer screening letter or testing kit who would like more information should contact the NHS bowel cancer screening programme on 0800 7076060.

About 98 per cent of people will receive a normal result, and will be invited for bowel cancer screening again in two years, if they are still in their sixties. The 2 per cent of people with an abnormal result will invited to an appointment with a specialist nurse.