Have you sent back your bowel cancer screening kit yet?

Why is the NHS asking people to return their kits now?

NHS England says the programme now finds around 100 cancers a week. In the most recent year on record (April 2024 to March 2025), 5.2 million people took part — nearly 500,000 more than the year before — but not everyone who is sent a kit sends it back. Around 8.7 million kits go out to people’s homes across England every year, and NHS England has been urging people not to leave theirs sitting on a shelf.

Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, put it simply: don’t put the kit on a shelf and forget about it — do the test, because it could save your life.

Who actually gets sent a kit, and how often?

Everyone registered with a GP in England aged 50 to 74 is sent a home testing kit automatically, once every two years. You don’t need to ask for it or book anything — it simply arrives through your letterbox. If you’re 75 or over, you can still request a kit every two years by calling the free bowel cancer screening helpline, but it stops being sent automatically.

• Ages 50–74: kit sent automatically every 2 years
• Age 75+: you can still ask for a kit yourself, but must request it
• The test used is called a FIT test (faecal immunochemical test)

Why do some age groups take part less than others?

NHS figures show a clear pattern: uptake rises with age. Around 56% of 54-year-olds who were sent a kit completed it, compared with about 74% of people aged 70 to 74. Overall uptake across all eligible ages was around 65%, which is actually down slightly on the previous year. It’s the newer, younger group in the programme — people in their early 50s — who are least likely to send their kit back, which is one reason NHS England has been focusing its reminders on that age group.

What does the test actually involve?

The kit contains a small plastic stick and a sample bottle, with clear instructions. You use the stick to collect a tiny sample from your own stool at home, seal it in the bottle, and post it back to the NHS in the packaging provided — there’s no need to visit a GP or clinic. The lab checks the sample for tiny traces of blood that aren’t visible to the naked eye, which can be an early sign of bowel cancer or growths that could turn into cancer.

A positive result doesn’t mean you have cancer — it means you’ll be invited for a follow-up test, usually a colonoscopy, to check further. Most people who are invited for a follow-up do not turn out to have cancer.

What difference does catching it early actually make?

Bowel cancer often has no symptoms in its early stages, which is exactly why screening matters — it can pick up problems before you’d ever think to see a doctor. Genevieve Edwards, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said the few minutes it takes to do the test could make a life-changing difference, and urged people to complete their kit and return it as soon as they can. NHS England’s National Cancer Plan has a longer-term goal too: an ambition to bring about 17,000 earlier diagnoses and save around 6,000 lives by 2035, with screening programmes like this one central to that goal.

What should I do if I’ve lost my kit or missed sending it back?

You don’t have to wait for your next scheduled kit. If you’ve misplaced yours, thrown it away, or simply never got round to it, you can call the free NHS bowel cancer screening helpline and ask for a replacement to be sent out. There’s no charge and no need for a referral from your GP.