A ROUTINE trip to the doctor probably saved Jim Coulduck’s life.

The ‘mayor’ of Mooral Creek is no stranger to health issues and is urging men and women to take the opportunity to check their health during Rotary Bowelscan week.

Jim, who turned 75 last month, remembers his 1999 trip to the GP very clearly. He had been suffering stomach and bowel discomfort for some time, and decided enough was enough. Initial tests revealed Jim’s prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels were high - an indicator that further investigation would be needed. A colonoscopy would later reveal several polyps (an abnormal growth of tissue) in Jim’s bowel. One was malignant.

“It was a particularly nasty one,” Jim said. “I’m just lucky they got it when they did.” Swift treatment and regular checkups have since kept Jim’s bowel in good stead.

“Men are hopeless,” he said. “We think we are bulletproof. Women know their bodies and look after themselves much more thoroughly. I think most blokes are pretty stubborn, and in fact are often wary of what the doctor has in store for them.”

Both Jim and his wife Jane are huge supporters of Rotary’s Bowelscan program. March is Rotary Bowelscan month, and Rotary clubs across the Manning are giving you the chance to save your life for $8.

Bowel cancer is Australia’s number one internal cancer, killing more than 4000 men and women every year. But it is very curable if you catch it early, and that’s what the $8 Rotary Bowelscan test kit is designed to do.

The kits are available - to people 40 and over - from participating pharmacies between March 1 and March 31. Wingham Rotary will also be distributing the test kits outside Coles Wingham from 9am to 5pm next week.

“I would encourage all men and women over 40 to take the test,” Jim said. “It is such a simple procedure. Rotary have been good enough to put this together off their on backs.”

Rotary runs Bowelscan in March every year, to help Australians get into the habit of repeating the test annually. “We have people here in the Greater Taree area living 24 years longer than they might have, after being assisted with Bowelscan,” Rotary’s District 9650 Bowelscan chairman Kevin Sharp said. “As Rotarians, we wish to have longer living parents and grandparents for our children.”