Free lung cancer screenings to help save lives

Smokers and ex-smokers in Dartford are being invited to take part in a free lung screening pilot scheme.

NHS Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance are encouraging those aged between 55 and 74 to attend, with checks being offered at the Priory Shopping Centre on Thursday.

The aim of the service is to save lives by catching cancer early.

Dr Jonathan Bryant, NHS Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance Cancer Clinical Lead, said the screenings were important as "earlier the diagnosis, the more treatment options there are."

From the end of July patients will be screened at the new North Kent Community Diagnostic Centre in Dartford, which is run by Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust.

Meanwhile, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust is expanding their free lung screening to Faversham, with checks being offered at its town council building on Friday.

There is also a new mobile CT scanner at the Estuary View Medical Practice in Whitstable.

The scheme started in November 2022 and was rolled out across the south Kent coast, covering Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Sandwich and Romney Marsh, as well as in Canterbury last year.

Since its launch more than 100 lung cancers have been diagnosed in East Kent, with 64% diagnosed at an early stage - compared to 33% outside of the screening.

Ken Boorman, from Dymchurch, got invited for a lung health check in May 2024 and lung cancer was detected at an early stage the following August.

"I would totally recommend people to go for their checks, it saved my life," he said.

Funding for the rollout of the NHS Lung Health Check Programme was supplied by NHS England, with Kent and Medway being one of 20 areas covered nationally.

NHS figures show 10,678 lung cancers have been detected through the programme in England since it began – more than three quarters of which were caught at stages one or two.

People diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stages are nearly 13 times more likely to survive for five years than those whose cancer is caught late, according to NHS England.

Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK, around 26,000 people die from the disease every year. Seven out of 10 cases of lung cancer are caused by smoking.

It is hoped screenings will be held at other sites in Kent and Medway in the near future.

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