A deputy editor who survived cancer after being told he was two days from “starting to die” is campaigning for improvements in diagnosing the disease.

Carl Difford, deputy editor at the South Wales Argus, ended up close to death from septicaemia despite being told he would have only required a “relatively minor operation” had his bowel cancer been detected earlier.

Now Carl, pictured, is joining others in calling for improvements to diagnostic services and survival rates in Wales, which ranks 25th of 29 European countries in five-year survival for bowel cancer.

According to a Bowel Cancer UK and Beating Bowel Cancer report, five out of seven health boards breach eight-week waiting times for tests that can diagnose the disease, while only 53.4pc of people completed bowel screening in 2016/17.

Carl had waited seven months for a colonoscopy, when in autumn 2015 he required emergency surgery to remove a tumour that was causing a blockage.

He said: “I was told I was two days away from starting to die of septicaemia.  But if my cancer had been caught at stage one, it would probably have been a relatively minor operation and minimal aftercare.

“Anecdotally, I understand the diagnostic service in Wales is worse than in England, but the aftercare is better. But it is the diagnostic side that saves lives.

“It would be cost effective to invest in endoscopy, because my ongoing treatment has cost the NHS tens of thousands of pounds.”