'Random test found my symptomless lung cancer'

A man with no troubling symptoms was only found to have lung cancer after he was offered a test under a specialist NHS screening programme.

Gordon Darnell, now 72, said he was diagnosed on Christmas Eve in 2020, with his wife Muriel sitting at his side. Because his cancer had been detected at such an early stage it was able to be quickly treated.

The couple spoke to the BBC at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool as the government launched a new strategy which aims to drastically improve cancer survival rates.

Gordon said: "I didn't believe I had cancer because I had no symptoms. They wanted to do more tests, and I was thinking 'Well, OK, they can do as many tests as they want."

The screening programme is a central part of the government's 10-year cancer strategy.

By 2029, it wants 85% of patients to wait no longer than 62 days from having an urgent referral to starting cancer treatment.

That figure currently hovers at about 70%.

After having undergone some follow-up tests, Gordon said he first realised something must be wrong when he was asked to bring Muriel with him to a subsequent appointment.

Gordon said he had been told he would not have survived until the following Christmas had it not have been for the testing programme.

Because the disease was caught so early, it was removed in a single operation and Gordon was able to leave hospital a few days later, cancer-free.

"That saved the NHS a fortune and it really saved my life," he said.

The screening programme did not just benefit Gordon.

Muriel revealed that while she had been found to be cancer-free, a second screening a year later had detected "crystallisation" in her arteries, resulting in her being prescribed medication.

"As my doctor said to me, if I hadn't come for that, the first thing I would have known was a heart attack or a stroke," she said.

As well as the expansion of lung cancer screening, the NHS aims to catch more cases of bowel cancer at an earlier stage.

It also wants to increase the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and genomics to produce earlier diagnoses.

Dr Carles Escriu, a consultant oncologist at The Clatterbridge Centre, said investment in diagnostics and supporting services such a radiology would be vital.

"We need to boost these diagnostic services that are not necessarily cancer-related," he said.

"But they are key if you don't know what cancer you've got.

"If I don't have that basic level of information I can't connect both things, no matter how much money the government has got."

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