The North Central London Cancer Alliance is encouraging people who are experiencing homelessness to take part in bowel, breast and cervical screening when invited. NHS cancer screening tests are free and can help detect a problem early, before you have any symptoms.
Cancer screening saves lives! If cancer is caught early, treatment is more likely to be successful.
To be invited for a cancer screening you must be registered with a GP. Everyone has the right to access healthcare. You do not need identification documents or a fixed address to register with a GP and your immigration status does not matter. There is a guide available on how to register with a doctor (GP).
You can register using your local day centre or hostel as an address as well as the GP surgery address so that you can receive your healthcare letters from the NHS.
Depending on the type of screening, you will be sent a test kit with instructions or information about having an appointment at your GP surgery or at a local screening site.
The links below will tell you more about each of the NHS cancer screening programmes.
You will usually receive results in the post within two weeks. Most screening tests find no problems, but if follow up tests are needed, your letter will explain the next steps.
We have worked with Groundswell, a homelessness charity, to produce booklets about cancer screening especially for people experiencing homelessness.
Bowel cancer screening
Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish,
Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish,
Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish,
Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
"As someone who'd been in active addiction for years, I was convinced I'd done irreparable damage to my body. So, when a bowel cancer screening kit was sent to me, I ignored it for months - I was afraid of getting bad news. Eventually I took the plunge, and the results came back very quickly...negative. I've since taken another test which was also negative. I am so glad I found the courage to do it, because it's now one less thing to worry about.”
Chris, 63 years old
Information about the campaign for health and care professionals is available on the North Central London Cancer Alliance website.
