Introducing bowel screening earlier will save lives. An extra 60,000 Māori and Pacific people will receive screening for bowel cancer with this initiative, and it is likely to result in earlier detection of bowel cancer for around 53 people. This could mean avoiding as many as 44 deaths each year—44 mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons. People in our families will live longer. A $36 million investment is significant, but preventing the deaths of loved ones means much more. Pacific health experts and academics and organisations across the board, including the New Zealand Cancer Society, Hei Āhuru Mōwai, and Bowel Cancer New Zealand have called on Government to address this inherent inequity and we have listened. The bowel screening initiative will roll out later this year across two regions, with the plan to go nationwide from July 2023. It's important to fully implement the programme first, to ensure colonoscopy capacity and follow-up treatment facilities are in place to manage the additional procedures and cancers diagnosed as a result of a positive bowel-screening test. 