The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), through its “Screen for Life” programme, has launched a national awareness campaign on bowel cancer, one of the most common cancers among women and men in Qatar.

The National Breast and Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, also known as “Screen for Life”, is a lifesaving, population-based programme that aims to promote education, awareness, and encouragement of early detection of breast and bowel cancer in Qatar.

The programme is responsible of launching a nationwide campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer and the importance of screening.

This month, the campaign will utilise a blend of traditional and digital marketing strategies and feature strategic partnerships with prominent governmental and private entities, including Qatar Museums.

In addition to these partnerships, there will be a series of educational social media posts throughout the month, with awareness booths set up at different health centres and public lectures held during and after the month of Ramadan.

Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in Qatar among men and women, with early detection significantly increasing the chances of successful treatment.

When diagnosed early, the survival rate can be as high as 90%.

The campaign emphasises the critical message that awareness and proactive screening can save lives.

The chosen slogan, *Screen Today for a Safer Tomorrow, encapsulates the essence of the initiative – encouraging eligible men and women to take charge of their health with timely screenings as part of prevention and early detection.

The campaign is aimed at educating the public about the importance of early detection of bowel cancer and to promote getting screened with a free bowel test which is known as the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT test) offered to all women and men in Qatar aged between 50-74 years, who show no symptom related to bowel cancer and have not had bowel cancer screening done in the last two years, or any colonoscopy within the last 10 years.

Dr Shaikha Abu Shaikha, the director of Screening Programmes, encourages all people to get to know the main symptoms of bowel cancer, which might include blood in the stool or rectal bleeding, change in everyday bowel habits, diarrhoea, constipation, or a combination of that lasts more than two weeks, feeling that the bowel is not empty, abdominal pain, unexplained weight loss, unexplained anaemia, weakness or fatigue.

“You can enrol into the programme by either receiving a call from the cancer screening call centre to schedule an appointment, or by physician’s electronic referral to the cancer screening programme, or by calling the cancer screening call centre number 8001112 to schedule the appointment,” she said.

“The breast and bowel cancer screening suites are available at different health centres across Qatar: Al Wakrah, Rawdat Al Khail, Muaither, Laibeib and Al Sadd,” Dr Shaikha added. “People also can call the national cancer screening call centre at 8001112 to book an appointment or to learn more about the programme.”