If you throw away your BowelScreen invite, you’re binning your chance of getting lucky like I did

Retired teacher Jim Ahern’s previous two screenings showed no issues. But he is grateful he was diagnosed early through BowelScreen and needed minimal treatment

Jim Ahern was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2024 through the BowelScreen national screening programme. Photo: Dylan Vaughan

“I got back a letter, and I’ll never forget the phrase: They had found traces of blood imperceptible to the eye.”

The letter to which Jim Ahern, 66, is referring had come from BowelScreen, the free national bowel screening programme.