Bowel screening - What is bowel screening?

The home testing kit looks for tiny amounts of blood in your poo. You wouldn’t be able to see the blood just by looking at your poo yourself.

Bowel cancers can bleed, which is why the screening test looks for blood.

Blood can also come from polyps. These are abnormal clumps of cells in the bowel. Polyps are not cancer, but may develop into cancer over time. They can be easily removed.

If you have more questions about bowel screening, you can find out more on GOV.UK.