SIR – I congratulate Andrew Lansley, the former Conservative health secretary, on his excellent article on bowel cancer (Comment, April 3), and wish him well with his treatment.
I agree that screening is the key to preventing and curing bowel cancer. In 1983 I founded Guts (Guildford Undetected Screening) to raise money for both screening and endoscopy (colonoscopy). I was at St Marks’ Hospital in the Seventies, when colonoscopy was developed, and introduced colonoscopy – funded entirely by Guts – to Guildford in the Eighties.
There was no programme for training in endoscopy or indeed a specific budget. Until a truly national high-quality endoscopy service is rolled out, there will always be...