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Colon cancer awareness

Ms Chua, a housewife, tries to keep herself healthy by exercising. Her quest for good health led her to benefit from the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS)’s free Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) kit distribution program which has been running for the past two years. The FOBT kit is used for colorectal cancer screening.

Every March, Ms Chua will look through the newspapers for announcements on Colorectal Cancer Awareness Campaign (CCAM), during which SCS will distribute free FOBT kits. In March 2008, Madam Chua took the kit again without giving much thought to it as her previous tests had turned up negative. Understandably, she was dismayed at being told that her latest test was positive. After the shock has worn off, the support of her family helped her to come to terms with the diagnosis. She received swift guidance from SCS staff, who instructed her to report to Jurong Medical Centre, where doctors arranged for her to undergo colonoscopy.

Colonoscopy just takes around less than an hour and the doctor extracted around three polyps from her intestinal area, for which the largest was about one centimetre. The polyps were later tested and found to be non-cancerous. She was relieved to hear that the final result was negative, who has to return for follow-up colonoscopy in the next two years. She said that CCAM was beneficial to the public, as it helps to raise awareness about colorectal cancer. Her experience has led her to encourage friends and family to undergo colorectal cancer screening.

“In fact, some of them have already gone for it,” she said.

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