MORE than 10,000 cases of lung cancer have been detected by NHS scanning trucks at superstore car parks and other public places, figures show.

NHS England said more than three quarters were caught early at stages one and two.

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More than 10,000 cases of lung cancer have been detected by NHS scanning trucks at superstore car parks and other public places, figures show Credit: NHS Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance

Ken Roberts said: ‘I just feel really lucky that I went for that lung health check as I so nearly didn’t go’ Credit: NHS Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance

The trucks, also at stadiums and on high streets, form part of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme set up in 2019 in areas hardest hit by the disease.

Catching it at the earliest stages means patients are 13 times more likely to survive for five years compared with those who are diagnosed late.

Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said: “Lung cancer checks and scans save lives, so it’s fantastic the NHS has now diagnosed over 10,000 people – the majority at an early stage, when treatment is most effective.

“The Lung Cancer Screening Programme has been designed around where people already are, bringing scanners into their local communities to make it easier for people to get checked.

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“It is great to see the positive public response to this programme, and rolling this out nationwide will help us save even more lives in the future.”

Ken Roberts, 74, of Bolton, had no symptoms but was invited for a check at a mobile unit at Morrisons and diagnosed with stage one lung cancer, treatable with surgery.

He 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.

“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.”

Around 50,200 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, the equivalent of 140 a day.

According to the NHS, the nationwide rollout of its programme by 2030 will result in six million people in England being invited for a lung health check.