'Earlier screening might have made a difference'

Gerard Greene said that screening for lung cancer will save lives

A County Armagh man with stage four lung cancer has backed calls for a screening programme for the disease to be rolled out across Northern Ireland.

Gerard Greene, 75, from Craigavon, said that had his cancer been caught earlier it might have made a difference.

“Mine was stage four which is inoperable in my case,” he said.

Cancer Research UK have said there is an urgent need for the introduction of a targeted-screening programme for lung cancer in Northern Ireland.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Northern Ireland with about 1,000 dying from the disease each year, according to the charity.

Analysis by Cancer Research UK estimates that under a screening programme 1,400 more patients in Northern Ireland could be diagnosed with the disease at an early stage over the next decade.

In England more than 40 areas are trialling checks for current and former smokers aged 55-74 but there are no confirmed plans for an equivalent initiative in Northern Ireland.

Mr Greene, who said he smoked about 20 cigarettes a day until the age of 50, said: “If it’s going to save lives in England, it’s going to save lives here as well.”

“To me it is simple – screening will save lives,” he said.

‘Cancer is devastating families’

He said if his cancer had been picked up earlier, he may have been able to have other treatments.

“Because I didn’t go to a doctor until it was really bad and I never thought it was cancer in the first place,” he said.

Mr Greene added that if he had thought it was cancer: “I’d have been getting screening and it would have been picked up”.

Barbara Roulston from Cancer Research UK said that lung cancer is a “tragedy for Northern Ireland”.

“[It] is devastating families, some of those who live among our poorest communities,” she added. “Access to lung screening matters because it means more people may be diagnosed at an early stage, when more treatment options are available.”Ms Roulston said there have been big improvements in how other forms of cancer are diagnosed and treated  “but long-term lung cancer survival in the UK isn’t much higher than it was 50 years ago”.”This is unacceptable when evidence shows that earlier diagnosis through lung cancer screening can potentially help hundreds of people live longer healthier lives,” she said.