Bowelscan in Redlands

Bowelscan is an Australian Rotary Program supported by the Australian Rotary Health Research Foundation.  Please see www.arhrf.org.au and follow to Bowelscan page. In Queensland, major assistance is given by medical laboratory group Sullivan Nicolaides who professionally analyse each completed test free of charge, and send results to Rotary District officers if negative or to Rotary Medical doctors if positive. Refer www.snp.com.au.

The concept of a community awareness and self help program was developed by a General Practitioner, a Rotarian in northern New South Wales in 1982 who sought a low cost easy to use diagnostic test to alert patients about cancer of the bowel. Cancers usually bleed into the bowel, but the blood is not visible in early stages. The test detects for blood hidden in the faeces.

Bowel or colorectal cancer is a cancer of the large bowel, it is the second most common cancer worldwide after breast cancer, it is the second highest cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer, and it affects 1 in 18 males and 1 in 26 females in Australia.

There is now an Australian National scheme run in conjunction with all State Health Departments that arose following some regional screening trials. One trial was conducted around Mackay. The National scheme was introduced recently under Medicare. It is free to those selected, and invites participation from the adult population of two designated birth years only with the possibility of one follow up screening  after some years. See www.cancerscreening.gov.au and www.bladderbowel.gov.au for an excellent account of the medical facts relating to Bowel cancer.

Ninety percent of bowel cancers can be cured if detected early. About 90 Australians die each week from the disease. Population screening by colonoscopy is not a practical solution. However cancers may only bleed intermittently and a single test may not detect the cancer. Rotary Bowelscan believes self help tests should be conducted annually.

The simple Bowelscan test offers a practical cost effective tool to complement the Australian National Bowel Cancer population screening program. This has spurred Rotary Bowelscan programs to initiate and further promote community self help action in Australia.

Bowelscan kits are on sale in Redlands through March each year, usually including the last week of February. Kits should be used and returned to a participating pharmacy two weeks after purchase.

Rotary Clubs world wide are independent community service organisations. Clubs are grouped geographically into Districts, Districts into Regions, and each club is also a member of Rotary International. Clubs are non denominational and non political.

In Queensland, District 9630 extends from the bayside suburbs of Redland City across southern Brisbane suburbs to include Ipswich, Toowoomba and communities out to Charleville. District 9630 supports Bowelscan as a community awareness program. Please see www.rotary9630.org.

Other Rotary Districts support the program, but not all, as within each District support rests with individual clubs, as communities perceive differing urgencies and priorities in their local situations. There is support in the Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coasts and further north.

Bowelscan is not a money raising program. Rotary Clubs, Pharmacies and the medical testing organisations all volunteer their time. Kits are purchased from pharmaceutical supplier Helena Laboratories in Melbourne (see www.helena.com), and sold in Queensland through participating pharmacies at a cost of $6.00 each.

In Redland City all 27 pharmacies are participating and are volunteering their time. They make no profit on these sales. Once the kits are used by customers, the kits are returned to any participating pharmacy and collected by Rotarians and taken to a local Sullivan Nicolaides depot and then analysed for haemoglobin at no charge.

Results are reported back to the customer if negative, i.e. good news and no blood detected, or else Sullivan Nicolaides reports back to a Rotary Medical Doctor who personally contacts the customer’s nominated doctor who will arrange for an in-depth consultation usually resulting in a colonoscopy to determine the cause of the internal bleeding. 

The community awareness program is in partnership with RDCOTA, Redland District Committee on the Ageing, as its mission includes providing support services to the over 50s in the community. (See www.rdcota.org.au).

Rotarians in all four Clubs in Redland City in SE Queensland are cooperating in this program. The four clubs are Capalaba, Cleveland, Redlands Bayside, and Redland Sunrise. Redlands Bowelscan believes this is a worth-while community “self-help” program relating to healthy living.