{"id":125577,"date":"2025-11-09T02:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125577\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T02:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:17:10","slug":"paddy-gower-urges-bowel-screening-after-health-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/125577\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Gower urges bowel screening after health scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy mind turned to how Mum had died and there\u2019s cancer in my family<\/a>,\u201d he shares. \u201cMy deepest personal fear is dying of the disease after watching it happen to my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ProfessorProfessor Frank Frizelle discovered a second small polyp in Paddy. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

Once out of recovery, Frank explained that one of the polyps was pre-cancerous and would have developed into cancer within the next decade.<\/p>\n

While Paddy was relieved it had been removed, he\u2019s still grappling with the reality that had it not been for the show, he may never have discovered the growth until it was too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that time, I would still be under the screening age, so there would be no reason for me to get a colonoscopy,\u201d tells Paddy, who will now need check-ups every three years to monitor for new growths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know from all my research this is what happens to people my age. It grows inside you and you don\u2019t know it\u2019s there until finally there\u2019s some emergency symptom. By then, you have a large cancer inside your bowel and it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had this amazing moment \u2013 I\u2019ve had a lot of these in my life \u2013 I call them \u2018Paddy Luck\u2019, a term I have coined. I don\u2019t say this lightly, it probably saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Frank agreed to do the procedure in his own time, so no patients missed out on appointments, Paddy is aware how fortunate he was to receive care when thousands of others are still waiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really guts me is there are 20,000 people on the waiting list for colonoscopies in New Zealand<\/a>,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat\u2019s 20,000 people who have had some form of symptom or recommendation from their doctor to get this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another major hurdle in bowel cancer detection is getting eligible people actually to book their free screening.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe TV host is aware of how fortunate he was to receive care when thousands are still waiting. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living proof of how important colonoscopies are,\u201d he says. \u201cThey save lives. A lot of people are scared and don\u2019t want to do it because of the discomfort involved. But the comfort that it gives you, knowing that you\u2019ve had your bowels checked, far outweighs it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paddy\u2019s journalism has long been driven by a desire to improve cancer care in New Zealand in honour of his mum. But he was especially motivated to tackle bowel cancer on Paddy Gower Has Issues after the death of primary school teacher and awareness advocate Aimee-Rose Yates in July.<\/p>\n

Paddy met Aimee-Rose during the 2023 Newshub leaders\u2019 debate, where she challenged both Christopher Luxon<\/a> and Chris Hipkins<\/a> to lower the age for screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth leaders made a promise to bring the bowel cancer screening age down to 45 to match Australia,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI have a real issue with this promise to Aimee-Rose not being kept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since taking office, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown have lowered the free screening age from 60 to 58, a change that came into effect this month in Auckland, Northland and the South Island.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also introduced an at-home test using a stool sample to detect traces of blood, available to people of all ages and pledged to deliver 7100 additional colonoscopies over the next year.<\/p>\n

But the Government has yet to commit to a timeline for matching Australia\u2019s screening age.<\/p>\n

While Paddy agrees progress has been made, he, along with medical experts, insists it\u2019s not enough. And he won\u2019t stop pushing until this Government, or the next, stays true to its word.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a harsh reality this disease is killing New Zealanders younger and younger,\u201d he insists. \u201cIt\u2019s something that means a lot to me. It\u2019s good to see some movement from the Government. It makes it worthwhile, but more needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

All episodes of Paddy Gower Has Issues are streaming on ThreeNow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy mind turned to how Mum had died and there\u2019s cancer in my family,\u201d he shares. \u201cMy deepest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,74,3469,9526,1408,36334,2534,38443,793,87365,305,134,5511,13840,111,43,139,69,87364,2515,6661,2839,417,3552,1316,4576],"class_list":["post-125577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-after","tag-agreed","tag-another","tag-awareness","tag-bowel","tag-cancer","tag-colonoscopy","tag-felt","tag-gower","tag-have","tag-health","tag-just","tag-like","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paddy","tag-raise","tag-scare","tag-screening","tag-television","tag-urges","tag-when","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}