20 May 2025

Bowel cancer survivor protests for screening age to be lowered

From Checkpoint, 5:08 pm on 20 May 2025

Last year the government announced it's progressively lowering eligibility for free bowel cancer screening to 58 years old, down from 60. It also ended a pilot programme that allowed Maori and Pasifika to access bowel screening at 50. That's despite Christopher Luxon's pre-election promise to match Australia's screening age of 45 years old. Rachael Ferguson spoke to Lisa Owen.