A major six-month lung cancer screening programme for people living in Southport, Formby and North Sefton is about to come to a close.
However, health bosses are stressing that local residents still have time to get themselves checked out. Phone assessments will keep running until Wednesday 1st July, and the mobile CT scanning unit will stay parked up at The Dunes Leisure Centre in Southport until Saturday 18th July.
The Target Lung Health Check programme is specifically for people aged between 55 and 74 who currently smoke or used to smoke in the past.
Because people in this age bracket with a history of smoking face a higher risk of lung disease, the checks are designed to spot any early signs of trouble before symptoms even show up. Finding problems early means treatment is much more likely to be successful.
Symptoms can easily be missed
The NHS teams running the project say that most people who come forward get a completely clean bill of health. But they warn that lung conditions can easily go unnoticed in the early stages until the disease becomes much more serious.
If you fit the criteria—aged 55 to 74 and a current or former smoker—and you haven’t received an invitation letter yet, you don’t have to miss out. You can call the booking team directly on 0151 254 3032.
The first step is a straightforward, 30-minute health assessment over the telephone. If the nurse decides you have an increased risk, they will invite you down to the mobile unit for a quick, low-dose CT scan.
Thousands already checked
The initiative has seen a massive uptake since it launched locally in January 2026. So far, more than 6,700 lung health checks have been carried out across North Sefton, with nearly 4,000 people sent on for a quick CT scan.
The rollout follows a similar scheme in South Sefton which ran between 2022 and 2024. Across the wider Cheshire and Merseyside region, the project has already picked up more than 950 cases of lung cancer—with the vast majority of those patients going on to be completely cured because the disease was caught so early.
‘Simple and quick’
Cllr Joanne Williams, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, has urged anyone eligible to pick up the phone.
She said: “This type of screening can reduce the number of people dying of lung cancer by 26% in men and between 39% and 61% in women, so I’m glad to see that over 6,700 people in North Sefton have come forward for the programme.
“The scan is simple and quick, and you get your results about four weeks later. The vast majority of people are found to be totally fine and their lungs completely healthy.”
Regional success
Our region has been at the forefront of introducing these lifesaving checks, with schemes already completed in Liverpool, Knowsley, Halton, St Helens, Wirral, Warrington and South Sefton.
The North Sefton phase is being run by the specialist Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, working alongside the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and local NHS teams.
Cllr Williams added: “Although the programme is coming to an end in North Sefton, if you’re a former smoker aged 55 to 74, there’s still time to book your screening. Simply contact the team on 0151 254 3032 today.”