Bedfordshire hospitals are currently taking part in a pilot in conjunction with Cancer Alliance to offer a free lung health check to anyone aged between 55 and 74 years of age.

Anyone who smokes or who has ever smoked and is registered with a GP in Leighton Buzzard will have received a letter from their surgery asking them to call and make an appointment

Bedfordshire has poor outcomes for lung cancer and some of the highest rates of smoking with a significant percentage of the local population labelled as smokers or former smokers. If lung cancer is caught early, curative treatment is possible and people can go on to live life to the fullest. The difficulty has been finding it at those early stages, 20% of people in the UK still cannot name one symptom of lung cancer. This lack of awareness is one of the reasons why so many people with lung cancer are diagnosed at a later stage.

Unfortunately, but in line with pilots across the country, the take up rate in our area is around 50%