History of the Program
A surgeon member of the Rotary Club of Lismore, the late Dr N. E. Brand, was concerned that the incidence of bowel cancer and subsequent deaths were increasing, even though overseas research had shown that a significant number of cancers could be cured if detected early. In 1982, on Bill Brand’s initiative, the Rotary Club of Lismore developed the Bowelscan program as a Community Service project. Since then, the program has spread across many regions of Australia, involving well over 300 Rotary Clubs in 16 Rotary Districts. Eight districts have established District Bowelscan Committees.
In 1990, the National Bowelscan Committee, comprising representatives from the Districts operating Bowelscan programs, was established to develop and maintain protocols. Bowelscan is supported by Australian Rotary Health.
The current Bowelscan program
Bowelscan is essentially a public awareness program seeking to increase community knowledge of bowel cancer and its symptoms and to distribute a simple FOBT test kit to detect the presence of blood in the bowel motion. It is a basic screening test only, not a diagnostic test, and people with a positive result are asked to consult their doctor for further examination.
The program’s success is due largely to the support of shopping centres, CBDs and hundreds of pharmacies which distribute the kits as a service to the community, and pathology laboratories which test the kits at little or no cost. The program is conducted as a cost neutral project to minimise the price of the kits. Any excess funds are devoted to research projects .
About 150,000 kits are distributed annually across Australia and over the years more than 1,500 people with bowel cancer and over 5,000 people with polyps (possible precursors to cancer) have been detected.
