'Lung scan in supermarket car park saved my life'

A woman who discovered she had lung cancer after visiting a mobile screening service at her local supermarket says the scan saved her life.

Sandra Champkins, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, had not smoked for a decade and was symptom-free when she was invited for a check-up by the Thames Valley Lung Cancer Screening Programme in 2025.

Since the project launched in 2022, 169 people across the Thames Valley have been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier than they otherwise might have been, despite fewer than half of those invited accepting a scan.

"It's the best thing I've ever done," said Sandra. "I'd urge anyone who gets the call to go for the lung screening to go".

She added: "I was perfectly fine - absolutely well... in fact I can't remember the last time I did go to the GP apart from annual blood tests."

When she was selected to be part of the programme, Sandra said she had no hesitation in getting checked out.

"Within three days I was there having a CT scan in Tesco's car park," she said.

"[It was] absolutely incredible. It's five minutes from me down the road anyway so there was nowhere to travel".

Sandra had the tumour removed using keyhole surgery and is now cancer free.

"Had I not taken up that offer, it could have been a couple of years later before I had symptoms," she said.

The project aims to screen everyone in the Thames Valley aged 55 to 75 who has ever smoked.

Those selected are informed by letter, inviting them to have a phone call with a member of the team, during which the patient's risk level is assessed and they can be invited for a free, low-dose CT scan.

Since the programme launched in July 2022, 17,675 CT scans have been carried out, identifying 169 cancers, 73% of which were diagnosed at stages one or two.

Programme director Dr Fiona MacLeod said: "Detecting the lung cancer when it's small, before it's started to cause symptoms is the way we will be able to cure people from having lung cancer."

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the UK, often because it is diagnosed too late.

The Thames Valley Cancer Alliance said the screening programme was being expanded slowly and it hoped to make it available to all eligible people by 2030.

It is now available across the region, using a mixture of mobile units and teams based in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

MacLeod said the project was "brilliant" and "hugely satisfying".

"The vast majority of people are reassured, 'you're fine for another two years'.

"And for those people for whom we do detect lung cancer, most of those are at a stage when we can treat them with an aim to cure. So it's enormously satisfying."

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