CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (16:02): Last week Bowel Cancer Australia made its call on Canberra, and 43-year-old Emma, from Kangaroo Island in my electorate, came to visit me. Despite Emma's symptoms and a family history of bowel cancer, Emma originally wasn't offered a bowel cancer screening test at the age of 42. A colonoscopy was eventually recommended, but there was a six- to 12-month wait, and a test result led to Emma receiving that colonoscopy within a month.

Emma is a teacher and a mother of two daughters, and she was shocked to be diagnosed with early-onset stage 3 bowel cancer at just 42 years of age. She had surgery followed by chemotherapy. She says her care was exceptional from that point, but getting diagnosed took longer than it should have.

Unfortunately, since we met Emma, she's found out that she needs to have some more follow-up tests, which she said really brings home the urgency of getting this message to decision-makers. Nurses told Emma they'd seen a tidal wave of early-onset bowel cancer among under-50s. Free testing kits are sent to people aged 50 to 74 every two years, and the government funds bowel cancer screening for people aged 45 and over.

But few young people and health professionals seem to be aware that there are also low-cost tests for people aged under 45. What does the data from Bowel Cancer Australia say? Since the early 2000s, rates of early-onset bowel cancer diagnosed before age 50 have been increasing in Australia and indeed worldwide.

Australia now has the highest rate of early-onset bowel cancer among 50 countries, which is extraordinary. Like Emma, some young Australians report challenges with diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Some are told they are too young to have bowel cancer.

But, in fact, one in eight Australians diagnosed with bowel cancer are under the age of 50. That is, 12 per cent of people diagnosed are aged under 50. That's quite a lot.

The risk of being diagnosed with bowel cancer before the age of 40 has more than doubled since the year 2000, and bowel cancer is now the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Australia for those aged 25 to 49. Bowel cancer rates are two to three times higher among Australians born in the 1990s than those born in the 1950s. But the incidence of bowel cancer is decreasing for older people, and that's perhaps due to screening and timely detection.

So I call on the government to do more with Bowel Cancer Australia and others to raise awareness and increase access to screening for young Australians. Let's get our GPS up to date and make sure they're talking to young people about this. I would particularly like to thank Emma for taking the time to come all the way from Kangaroo Island to Canberra to spend time with me in the parliament.