Take action to help your local hospital
Everyone diagnosed with bowel cancer should be tested for Lynch syndrome - a genetic condition that dramatically increases the lifetime risk of developing bowel cancer to up to 80%. Yet a staggering 95% of those affected don’t know they have it and are unaware of the risk to their children because they are simply not being tested.
Shockingly, a year and a half on from clinical guidance recommending all bowel cancer patients are tested at diagnosis, health boards in Wales are still failing to test. A lack of leadership to develop new ways of working and funding to implement the test is stalling progress. This needs to change.
It is vital people know they have Lynch syndrome so they, and their family members, can take life-saving steps to reduce their chance of dying from bowel cancer. A simple test can make all the difference to families like Tracey’s.
Tracey tells us 'Lynch syndrome has devastated my family. My cousin and my sister had it and sadly died from bowel cancer. I was diagnosed with bowel cancer when I was in my early thirties. Although I have a strong family history of cancer I wasn’t tested for Lynch syndrome until after treatment. Two of my tree children are old enough to be tested and one of them has Lynch syndrome.’
We need your AM to write to the Health Secretary to press for progress as implementation of this life-saving test by NHS Wales has stalled.