A grandmother who has beaten bladder cancer three times is backing a study designed to offer a less invasive way to detect the disease.
Security guard Brenda Irving from Essington had a tumour removed on each of the three occasions, having her treatment at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital.
Irving was one of about 4,600 people across England who joined the BC-Recon study into the effectiveness of a urine test to diagnose bladder cancer.
This is instead of inserting a camera into the urethra and guiding it into the bladder in a flexi cystoscopy, which the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust said could be “uncomfortable” and “result in complications”.
University of Birmingham researchers, funded by Cancer Research UK, developed a urine test identifying the mutated DNA which comes from bladder cancer.
If proven accurate enough, the new test might see a wider rollout so that some patients avoid a cystoscopy.
Irving said that all she had to do was take a kit home, label it, and send the sample back in the post.
“It was so easy and not invasive and it was a lot quicker than waiting in hospital. I’d definitely do it again if I was asked because it’s so quick,” the 60-year-old said.
“If anyone is asked to do this I would tell them to do it. If that’s all you have to do then more people might come forward to get checked.”