MORE than half of the people across West Dunbartonshire who were offered a potentially life-saving bowel screening completed the test.

Between April 2018 and March 2019, 31,489 people aged between 50 and 74 were offered screening.

A total of 17,987 of those took up on the offer, compared to 13,502 who didn’t – meaning 58 per cent of people were screened.

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Scotland for both men and women.

Screening aims to detect the cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective.

In some cases, as a result of screening, pre-cancerous polyps can be removed, and cancer prevented.

In 2017-19, more than 200,000 people took the bowel screening offer across Greater Glasgow and Clyde compared to 2015-17 when about 170,000 completed the test.

The increase in uptake is largely due to testing being made more accessible, with the introduction of a new home-test kit in 2017 that is sent to people’s homes every two years.

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However, uptake is lower in some groups – people in their 50s, men of all ages, people in socio-economically deprived areas, those with learning disabilities and amongst ethnic minorities.

Dr Emilia Crighton, deputy director of public health, at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “We’re now seeing the success of the easier test kits for bowel cancer, two years on from their introduction, with larger number of people returning the test.

“This means we’re able to detect and prevent more cancers as early as possible.

“But we still aren’t reaching everyone, particularly men and people turning 50, who receive their first test kit.

“I would encourage everyone to do the test once it arrives through the post – it can save their life.”

In Glasgow, 51.6 per cent of 175,527 people were screened.