TWO Glasgow sisters are calling for a national lung screening programme after losing their dad to cancer just before his 65th birthday.

Zoe and Louise Dorman believe that their father John - who died less than a year after his diagnosis - could have been saved if a screening programme for lung cancer was in place across Scotland.

Zoe explained that the news came as "such a shock" as John did not appear to be unwell.

She said: “He’d quit smoking over 30 years ago, kept good care of himself and did not look ill and yet, by the time he was diagnosed, it was already too late.

“I did not realise how quickly his cancer type grew and how uncontrollable it actually is when caught at stage four.

"I thought we would have had another 3-5 years with Dad after finding out his diagnosis.

"I never thought 10 months down the line, Dad would no longer be with us.”

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Similar lung screening pilot programmes have been carried out in England with success, with 900 people diagnosed and 77% caught at an early stage. 

Zoe and Louise are now supporting the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation’s #needtoscreen campaign which advocates the need for the programme in Scotland. 

Louise said: "I found out about the charity a month ago when I was feeling really down and looking for some help.

“The #needtoscreen campaign caught my attention and from there I knew we had to get involved with the charity.”

Lung cancer kills over 4000 people every year in Scotland and is the biggest cancer killer in the country. 

The majority are diagnosed in the late stages of the disease when treatment is longer possible, but when is caught at its earliest stage, people are nearly 20 times more likely to survive for five years than those who are diagnosed late. 

Paula Chadwick, chief executive of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: “Lung cancer is a difficult disease to diagnose early because symptoms are often vague, easily dismissed as something else or, in John’s case, non-existent.

"This means by the time a person is diagnosed it is often already at a late stage when curative treatment is no longer possible.

“But it doesn’t have to be like this.

"We know screening for lung cancer works. It helps us get ahead of the disease, diagnosing people at the earliest opportunity when it is easier to treat and cure."

Zoe feels that a screening programme would prevent both patients and their families from experiencing the pain that they are now going through as the family adjusts to life without John. 

She said: “Dad was only one year away from retiring – a chapter of his life he had been looking forward to experiencing with our Mum – a retirement he well deserved to enjoy but never got the chance.”

Louise added: “Home isn’t the same without him.

“I keep expecting him to answer the door when I visit Mum, or see his name pop up on my phone with a message or call.

"It’s difficult adjusting to a life without him.

"I’m currently planning my wedding day and knowing he won’t be there to walk me down the aisle breaks my heart.”

Ms Chadwick added: "If such a programme had existed in Scotland as it does in England, then maybe John would have been able to walk Louise down the aisle at her wedding.

“We are seeing improvements such as the lung health checks in England, but it is still too much of a postcode lottery.

"That is why we are campaigning for a national screening programme for lung cancer so everyone has the best chance of living through lung cancer rather than die from it.”

For more information about the #needtoscreen campaign and how to get involved, visit roycastle.org/needtoscreen.