A Manchester lung cancer pilot, offering smokers and ex-smokers free health checks and on-the-spot scans, has proved so successful it is being rolled-out more widely.

A pilot programme that scanned more than 2,500 people in three deprived areas of Manchester, where lung cancer is more prevalent, discovered 46 cases of cancer. Of these, 80% were early stage one and two diagnoses. This pilot programme quadrupled the early diagnosis rates for lung cancer in Manchester.

Now the scheme, funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and the Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups through the Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership, is being rolled-out across the whole of north Manchester, an area which has the highest number of lung cancer deaths among the under-75s in England.

Michael Brady, 64, was one of the people diagnosed with early stage lung cancer after having a scan while out shopping. “I wasn’t there long – only 20 minutes – and within a week I had an appointment at the hospital,” he said. “This lung scan saved my life.”