June is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month — Join Brisbane South PHN’s waiting room display challenge for your chance to win
Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in Australia. The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program began in 2006 and aims to reduce the morbidity and mortality from bowel cancer by actively recruiting and screening the target population, those aged 45 to 74, for early detection or prevention of the disease. The test is an immunochemical faecal occult blood test (iFOBT) which is a simple test that patients can do at home and post to a pathology lab for free.
If found early, over 90% of bowel cancers can be successfully treated. Despite this, only 41.7% of people take the life-saving opportunity to participate in Australia’s National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (AIHW, 2025).
People aged 50 to 74 are automatically sent the free test every 2 years. People aged 45 to 49 can request their free test online or by speaking with their general practitioner (GP). Healthcare providers can bulk order at-home testing kits to give to patients during an appointment.
Participate in the waiting room display challenge in the lead-up to Bowel Cancer Awareness Month
Brisbane South PHN invites local general practices in our region to decorate their practice waiting rooms to help prompt conversations and promote Bowel Cancer Awareness Month to your patients. Bowel Cancer Awareness runs annually for the whole month of June.
Your display will encourage patients aged 45 to 74 to:
understand the importance of regular bowel screening for early detection
learn how the free at-home bowel screening test works and when to use them
ask their GP or nurse about getting a free at-home bowel screening kit.
How to participate
Order free bowel screening resources, such as posters or brochures for your display via the National Bowel Cancer Screening website. To order, email the code of your chosen resources to: [email protected] . We recommend ordering by mid-May to allow time for dispatch.
Feel free to use your own creativity to design displays and information that suit your practice!
Set up your display in your waiting room for the month of June 2026.
Send Brisbane South PHN a photo of your display by emailing it to [email protected] by Friday 12 June 2026 to go into the random draw to win! Please include your name and the name of the practice.
Prizes
Every general practice who enters by Friday 12 June 2026 will be placed into a random draw.
The draw will take place on Monday 15 June 2026.
Eight lucky winners will receive a $100 gift voucher!
Terms and conditions:
Participation is open to general practices located within the Brisbane South PHN region.
By submitting a photo, the practice confirms it has permission to share the image and that no identifiable patients appear in the photo.
The prize amounts may be split into smaller denominations (such as 2 x $50) at the practice’s request to support the individual staff members who contributed to the display. This can be discussed with Brisbane South PHN staff when organising the delivery of the gift cards.
By entering, practices grant Brisbane South PHN permission to use submitted photos for promotional or reporting purposes (e.g., newsletters, social media, or annual reports).
Brisbane South PHN may publish images containing identifiable staff; however, this will first be discussed with the staff members involved.
If you have any questions, you can call 07 3864 7540 or email [email protected] during business hours.
Here’s a fun example from a practice that got creative during a previous bowel cancer screening activity:
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More National Bowel Cancer Screening Program support for general practices
Ready to keep the momentum going? Jump into our self‑paced quality improvement (QI) activity or get inspired by our bowel screening case studies!
Self-paced QI activity: Ordering National Bowel Cancer Screening kits for your patients
Case study: Bowel Cancer Screening for CALD patients
Further information for healthcare providers
Visit the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program learning hub for free, CPD-approved tools, events, and resources to support bowel cancer care.
Brisbane South HealthPathways’ bowel cancer and colorectal symptoms pages provides assessment and management information for primary healthcare clinicians.
References:
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2025) National Bowel Cancer Screening Program monitoring report 2025, AIHW, Australian Government.