A TAMWORTH medical scientist’s work promoting the early detection of bowel cancer has helped many people to beat the disease before it became life threatening.
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Garnet Wood, 69, has been honoured for his service to community health with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).
Mr Wood has been involved with the Rotary Club’s Bowelscan program for almost 30 years, including 14 years on the program’s national board.
To improve awareness of bowel cancer the program sells Bowelscan test kits, which are available through pharmacies.
“Bowelscan offers the public the opportunity to do a screen test at a reasonable price,” Mr Wood said.
“The test is best done when people have no symptoms. If they screen positive, those people need to be investigated further – it’s not a diagnosis, but it does narrow the field.”
Mr Woods was “honoured and humbled” by the OAM and said helping people was a reward in itself.
“That’s the reward though the program. People are having a good life they might not otherwise have if the screen test didn’t pick up the bowel cancer,” he said.
“We want to identify it as early as possible so a surgeon can remove cancer or polyp (cancer precursor). If they get it early there is a 95 per cent chance of a cure.
“They are able to enjoy a life that, without the screen test, may be a different story altogether.”
