A Scots woman now living in Australia has welcomed upcoming changes to the country's bowel cancer screening policy saying it could have prevented her own disease.

From July 1, people from the age of 45 will be sent testing kits, five years younger than most countries including the UK.

All those aged 45-49 have been sent messages alerting them to the change and urging people to "Poo.Post.Poke!"

The Australian Government said it is lowering the eligible screening age in response to recent updates to clinical guidelines for the early detection of colorectal cancer which were approved by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has recommended initiating colorectal cancer screening from 45 years of age instead of 50.

The Herald: Scotland and the rest of the UK screen people from the age of 50Scotland and the rest of the UK screen people from the age of 50 (Image: NHS Scotland)

It comes amid new, global statistics showing cancer rates in the under-50s rose by 79% - to 3.26 million - between 1990 and 2019.

Paula Morrison found out on May 17 - five days after her 49th birthday - that she has bowel cancer but doctors are hopeful it has been caught at an early stage.

"I know people will just think that it's something that will never happen to them," said the midwife, who lives in Sorell in Tasmania.

"I know I kind of felt that way. As a family, we have a pretty good diet. We eat plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, we don't eat a lot of processed foods, and only have red meat once a week.

"But if the powers that be have felt it necessary to update clinical practice guidelines, you have to ask yourself why.

"I don't have a history of bowel cancer but if I'd been screened earlier it would have been picked up before it became cancerous," she added.

"It's easy to find and it's easy to treat.

"A lot of people would be reluctant to go to their GP, even with symptoms.

The Herald: Paula Morrison says the new policy could have prevented her own cancer Paula Morrison says the new policy could have prevented her own cancer (Image: Paula Morrison)

"At least with screening at a younger age, people might at least be willing to take part in that it doesn't mean having to talk to someone face-to-face."

"Nobody seems to want to talk about bowel cancer, even thought it's one of the easier cancers to treat. 

"If people were more open and upfront about it I think it would go some way to normalising it, for want of a better word," she said.

Those aged 50-74 in Australia will continue to receive a bowel screening kit in the mail every two years.

Symptoms of bowel cancer include; bleeding from the back passage (rectum) or blood in poo and changes in normal bowel habits.

With the exception of cervical cancer, most screening services worldwide tend to target adults in middle age - between around 50 and 70 - who are more likely than younger people to develop cancer, but more likely than the elderly to get a meaningful survival gain from early diagnosis and treatment.

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Against this backdrop, scientists have been puzzling over a strange trend in recent decades that has seen the prevalence of cancer creeping up among the under-50.

Scientists from Edinburgh University's Usher Institute, Colon Cancer Genetics Group, and Institute of Genetics and Cancer contributed to research, published in the journal BMJ Oncology, which found that the number of new cancer cases detected in the under 50s had increased by 79% - to 3.26 million - between 1990 and 2019.

They forecast that this will increase by a further 31% by 2030, with adults in their 40s most affected.

Incidence rates for cancer in young adults were consistently highest in North America, Western Europe, and Australasia.

Globally, prostate cancer and cancer of the windpipe - nasopharyngeal - showed the fastest year-on-year rise in incidence rates, but there were also sharp increases in the rates of breast and bowel cancer in the young.

For adults aged 25 to 49 colorectal cancer rates in Scotland have increased by 18% since 1997 - from 10.4 to 12.3 cases per 100,000 - but have nearly doubled, from 2.8 to 5.2 cases per 100,000 in the 30 to 34 age group.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “The age ranges for each of the screening programmes, including for bowel screening, are based on evidence about the risks and benefits of screening people at different ages.

“They are developed in line with advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group which informs decisions taken across the UK on screening programmes, including those taken by the Scottish Government.

 “Scotland is the only nation that has fully adopted the UK NSC’s recommendation of screening individuals between the ages of 50 and 74.”