Detect colorectal cancer in time

“Taking part felt like a hassle”

As a doctor’s son, Thijs knows a lot about healthy living. Still, he left the invitation letter for the colorectal cancer screening programme unopened for a while.

“Taking part felt like a hassle. And the thought of poking around in my own poo felt uncomfortable. But I still took part. My father had a benign polyp removed. His experience did help me take part,” Thijs says.

Not everyone takes part in the screening programme, according to Thijs. That might be because they feel fine and live healthy lives. “But even then, you can still get colorectal cancer. It is so important to detect it early. Because then you can still do something about it. Like going to the dentist: a small cavity is easy to treat.”

Thijs believes that taking part is reassuring. “On some level, it is still on your mind. Even if you do nothing or delay taking action.” But Thijs has seen that many people do not take part in the national cancer screening programmes until someone they know is affected. “Like my father. That ended well, thankfully. But still. I am proud to still be taking part. I want everyone to know that.”

“We need to talk about it more”

Raymond feels that people need to know about the population screening for colorectal cancer. He will be invited for the first time next year, and definitely plans to take part. In the meantime, he has making sure his friends known about colorectal cancer screening.

“Some people are too afraid to take part. They are scared of going the doctor. Or scared of hearing the test results. But you should just take part. It is important for your health. And there really could be something wrong, even if you have not noticed any symptoms.”

To Raymond, talking about health exams is business as usual. That includes topics that men are sometimes embarrassed to discuss. He also talks to his friends and his mates at the sports club about prostate problems. “It is important because many men do not know much about this, but it does affect us. I want to make sure they know about it and open the topic up for discussion. I do the same thing with colorectal cancer screening. If you discuss it, they end up taking part after all.”

Raymond’s friends did feel that the cancer screening was somewhat strange and annoying. “That is because you have to dip the sample stick into your poo and send in a test tube. But that does not seem horrible to me. Just do it. For your own good. It is a good thing if you can catch it in time and prevent colorectal cancer. It is more common than I realised. That did come as a shock to me.”