Cancer test kit was my winning lottery ticket
Dad hails lifesaver that has ‘potentially given me another 20 years’
A DAD has hailed a random testing kit that dropped through his letterbox one day as his ‘winning lottery ticket’ as it revealed a potentially fatal diagnosis, saving his life.
The dad-of-two was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer following an NHS bowel screening test that landed on his doormat, having had no symptoms. He is now urging others to take up the offer of screening when invited as he was saved from the second biggest cancer killer.
Steve Hollington, 58, who works as a musician on cruise ships, says the devastating findings ‘completely took him by surprise’ and within weeks, he was undergoing surgery.
Now on the other side of the intense procedure, he says the testing kit ‘saved his life,’ potentially giving him ‘another 20 years to live.’
Steve was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer in 2022 after completing his first bowel screening – the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) – in September. He says that it was a ‘winning lottery ticket’ that the kit landed on his doormat and that had it not happened ‘the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.’
The FIT kit is a test you can do at home that detects small amounts of blood in poo that would not be visible to people and detects earlier if there is something wrong.
Shortly after returning the completed kit, the NHS contacted Steve to say further investigation was required and after a colonoscopy, two tumours were found in his bowel.
He said: “I could see at that point, that whatever the doctor had come across didn’t look good.
“After an MRI and a CT scan, I received the news confirming that it was, indeed, bowel cancer, which completely took me by surprise as I didn’t have a single symptom.”
On December 9, 2022, within weeks of the diagnosis, the Warrington man underwent surgery on his bowel and was fitted with a stoma post-surgery to allow his bowel to heal. Eighteen lymph nodes were also removed, and now Steve is halfway through a three-month course of chemotherapy.
Steve said: “There were some really worrying and emotional times, but I’ve tried to remain positive. I feel like I’m over the worst parts of it, the surgery has removed the tumours, the chemotherapy will hopefully mop up any of the cancerous cells and after the course has finished, hopefully I will be able to have a stoma reversal.”
Steve said that he realises that the fear of knowing that you have cancer can be scary and overwhelming, but added: “It’s a no-brainer for me. I had no symptoms, I would have carried on not knowing had I have not taken the test, and leaving it so long would have almost certainly been too late to receive the treatment I have.
“Taking the bowel screening kit has saved my life, and potentially given me 20 more years to live it.”