Linda Colford manages the bowel screening call/recall centre in Dundee which will coordinate Scotland’s national bowel screening programme when it begins in 2007. Initially employed as the screening pilot nurse for the Fife test site in 2000, Linda gives CNP an overview of her experience in this role which demonstrates how nurses can take on such screening service lead positions

Scotland has a higher incidence and lower survival rate for bowel cancer than most other Western European countries (Figure 1). In an effort to address the problem, in 1999 the National Screening Committee suggested a UK pilot be carried out for colorectal cancer screening using faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) (Steele et al 2001). The aim of the programme was to assess the practicalities, acceptability and feasibility of a possible national screening programme in the general population.