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Bowel cancer home screening kits will be made available to an extra 172,000 people in Wales, the Welsh Government has announced.

People aged 55, 56 and 57 will now start to be invited for screening from Wednesday, October 5, and will receive their home testing kits in the post over the next 12 months.

It comes as part of plans to lower the screening age to 50 by October 2024, and is being funded as part of a £16 million investment package from the Welsh Government.

Blackwood councillor Kevin Etheridge was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019, aged 60. He was one of more than 2,500 people diagnosed with the disease in Wales that year.

Since then he has campaigned to raise awareness of the disease.

Thankfully he was diagnosed early and the tumour, which was the size of a tennis ball, was removed from his bowel through surgery.

He said he initially ignored the screening test kit that he was sent and did not appreciate the importance of it at the time. He then went to his GP after feeling unwell and was later diagnosed by a cancer specialist.

He welcomed the Welsh Government’s announcement and said: “Having been through the process I am so pleased that bowel cancer screening on home testing is to be expanded to 55 to 57 year olds.”

Making the announcement, Wales’ Health Minister, Eluned Morgan, said: “This move will help us to identity more bowel cancer cases early and support improvement in survival rates.

“I’m also pleased to see that more people are taking part in the programme and that the uptake rate [65%] now meets the expected standard.”

Mrs Morgan added: “In future, we plan to continue to optimise the programme by lowering the age range to 50 and increasing the sensitivity of the test until we come into line with UK recommendations.”

Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive at Bowel Cancer UK, said it was a “step in the right direction”.

“Screening is one of the best ways to diagnose bowel cancer early, or in some cases prevent it from developing in the first place, and so inviting more people to take part is welcomed,” she added.

Dr Sharon Hillier, Director of the Screening Division at Public Health Wales, said: “Early detection is so important as at least nine out of ten people will survive bowel cancer if it’s found and treated early. Bowel screening also detects and removes pre-cancerous polyps that, if left in the bowel, could develop into cancer.

“The test kit is easy to complete and to send to our laboratory for analysis.

“I would urge everyone who receives an invitation to take up their offer as it could save their life.”