A TILLICOULTRY woman who was diagnosed with bowel cancer is using her experience to highlight the importance of doing a screening test.

Cathy Gladwin, 61, is part of a network of Bowel Cancer UK volunteers across Scotland marking Bowel Cancer Awareness Month in April by giving talks locally.

The screening test – offered to everyone in Scotland aged 50 to 74 every two years – remains the most effective way of finding the disease early.

Cathy is passionate about boosting participation in the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme, as someone who credits the test with being a lifesaver.

She was diagnosed in April 2015 after routinely sending it back the month before.

With no symptoms and having returned every test she was previously sent, she thought nothing of it, until receiving a letter saying further investigation was needed.

In what she describes as a ‘rollercoaster’, a week later she was at Forth Valley Royal Hospital for a colonoscopy and advised that biopsies were required.

Following her diagnosis, she underwent surgery to remove the tumour at the beginning of June.

Although it went well, tests that followed showed the cancer was in her lymph nodes, resulting in over five months of chemotherapy, finishing in November 2015.

Cathy, 61, said: "I’m lucky enough to be cancer free at the moment, and get checked every six months.

"Although there are times when I still feel I have to watch what I’m doing as I tire, I feel fine. At the end of the day, I’m still on this planet and I’m getting on with life.

"I volunteer to raise awareness for Bowel Cancer UK as I feel quite a lot of people still don’t understand how important the test is.

"Bowel cancer is treatable especially if it’s found early enough and I can turn round and say wholeheartedly I know that screening works.

"Thanks to the work of doctors, surgeons and researchers there’s been huge advances which mean a bowel cancer diagnosis isn’t what it used to be.

"I always believed that we’re lucky to have the offer of the bowel screening test, and I hope my story encourages other people to do it.

"If I hadn’t taken the test, and been treated so swiftly, things could have been very different."

For more visit getcheckedearly.org