New guidelines recommended expanding free bowel cancer screening to people aged 45

Screening for bowel cancer five years earlier – at the age of 45 – is a “step in the right direction”, according to advocate Kellie Finlayson.

• Why experts want to lower bowel cancer test age

Bowel cancer screening should start five years earlier at the age of 45, new guidelines commissioned by the federal government recommend.

But Adelaide mother Kellie Finlayson, who is currently battling stage four bowel cancer, is calling for people of all ages to be vigilant with their health.

Mrs Finlayson was diagnosed with bowel cancer just months after giving birth to her daughter Sophia in August, 2021. The cancer has since spread to her lungs and the wife of Port Adelaide AFL star Jeremy Finlayson is now fighting to live to see Sophia start school.

Mrs Finlayson welcomed any move to expand free bowel cancer screening to people aged 45, saying it was “a step in the right direction”.

“It’s huge, considering it’s been (offered at age) 50 for so many years,” she said.

“The more readily available (screening tests) are to people the better, at any age.”

Kellie Finlayson with her husband Jeremy and daughter Sophia. Picture: Russell Millard

Mrs Finlayson said it would help to make tests accessible to people aged 40 to 44 through their GP but she believed “GPs should be mentioning it to all ages”.

“Obviously I’m 27, so I’m much younger than that age bracket,” she said.

Mrs Finlayson’s comments come as an increasing number of younger Australians are being diagnosed with the cancer, which now kills more people aged 25-44 than any other type.

Currently bowel cancer screening starts at the age of 50, when people are mailed a stool test that is undertaken at home and sent to a pathology laboratory for testing.

If the test is positive, their doctor will send them for a colonoscopy to check if they have cancer.

One in 10 new bowel cancer cases (1680) are now occurring in people under the age of 50.

And between 2008 and 2018 there was an alarming 61.1 per cent jump in bowel cancer incidence among those aged 30-44.

The Australian Government provided funding for cancer research group the Daffodil Centre to draw up new testing guidelines and for the first time, its draft document recommends the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) fund free stool tests every two years for people aged 45-74.

The new draft guidelines also allow for those aged 40-44 to ask their GP for a screening test every two years outside the NBCSP until the free testing program kicks in.

This can already happen, although is not widely known

However Bowel Cancer Australia CEO Julien Wiggins cautioned, the draft recommendations were yet to be made final, they are open for public review until May 17.

Before they can be adopted, they must be endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Mrs Finlayson urged younger people who had concerns to find a pharmacy which sold an at-home poo test.

“They’re available in chemists at your own cost, but a lot of people probably don’t know that,” she said.

“You could go there as an 18 year old. It’s quite minimal (cost) considering what you can find through that test.”

Tests can also be ordered online, such as through the Jodie Lee Foundation website at a cost of $45.

Mrs Finlayson has been documenting her journey after her initial diagnosis at the age of 25 and was recognised for her advocacy with the Inspiration Award at The Advertiser and Sunday Mail Woman of the Year Awards in March.

She said she had heard from many young people who reported that “because of me they’ve reached out to their GP”.

“Unfortunately I’ve had a handful of people come back with a diagnosis (of bowel cancer) … but catching it early,” she said.

Originally published as New guidelines recommended expanding free bowel cancer screening to people aged 45