Hot off the press on LBC today25 May 2026 19:26
25 May 2026
“Thousands of people in England have had lung cancer caught early thanks to NHS scanning trucks in supermarket car parks, sports stadiums and busy high streets.
New NHS data shows 10,678 lung cancers have been detected through the programme since it began – more than three quarters of which were caught at stages one or two.
People diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stages are nearly 13 times more likely to survive for five years than those whose cancer is caught late.
Local health teams perform in-depth lung health checks and scans on current and past smokers aged 55-74 years old.
The trucks form part of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme – launched in 2019 in the areas hardest hit by the disease – which has now reached half of England’s most at-risk people.
One person who benefitted from an earlier cancer diagnosis through the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme is Ken Roberts, a 74 years-old manufacturing company director from Ladybridge, Bolton.
Ken was invited for a lung health check when a mobile scanning unit was parked at Morrisons in Bolton.
The granddad-of-five had no symptoms, so initially thought he wouldn’t go, but changed his mind. A few days later Ken was asked to go for a further scan in hospital, and after some more checks was told he had stage 1 lung cancer. Ken underwent surgery, and, thanks to his early cancer detection, no further treatment was needed.
Ken said: “I ummed and ahhed about whether to go, but in the end, I went because it was so convenient, and I could park really easily!
“I answered the health questions with a nurse and then they offered me a scan on the truck that same day which I had too.
“They explained what would happen next and what the options were. I went to Oldham for a positron emission tomography scan and then to Wythenshawe Hospital for a biopsy. This confirmed it was lung cancer, but it had been found at an early stage – stage 1 – and was treatable with surgery.
“I opted to have robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and I feel incredibly positive about my outcome because the cancer was found so early.
“Now I just feel really lucky that I went for that lung health check as I so nearly didn’t go. And I’m telling everyone to go for theirs when they get the invite.
“It’s really good news that thousands of people in Greater Manchester and across England have had their lung cancer diagnosed by this NHS scheme. This enables people to start treatment sooner, which makes it much more likely it will be successful.
“Without this scheme many of us – like me – wouldn’t have known we had lung cancer and got help for it.”
Under the new National Cancer Plan, the Government is aiming for 75% of people diagnosed with cancer to survive for five years or more by 2035. National rollout of lung cancer screening throughout England is a key part of this.
The nationwide rollout of the NHS’s programme by 2030 will lead to over 6 million people across