Celia set for Himalayas

A Lanarkshire public health expert is set for an adventurous Himalayan trekking challenge to help Scots beat bowel cancer.

- ROBERT MITCHELL

Celia Briffa-Watt, NHS Scotland's national programme board chair for bowel screening, is putting aside her concerns about tough camping conditions and gruelling altitude to raise money for charity.

The public health consultant with NHS Lanarkshire is trekking in the Himalayas in India for the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer UK, set up by high-profile bowel cancer campaigner, the late Dame Deborah James.

April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, so Celia is throwing a spotlight on the need to improve screening uptake across Scotland—especially in her own patch.

Lanarkshire comes second-last among Scotland's health boards for use of bowel screening kits, particularly worrying as locals who do take the test have the nation’s highest positivity rate. The good news is that screening is the best way to detect bowel cancer early—when treatments are more successful.