Bowel Cancer NZ is calling for the bowel cancer screening roll out to be accelerated

Despite the previous government's plans to lower the eligible age from 60 to 50 for Maori, only three regions are providing kits to those who meet this criteria.

Bowel Cancer New Zealand medical advisor Professor Sue Crengle says the roll out needs to be completed urgently.

She says if it's not detected early, more treatment is needed.

Crengle says some of these people may well die because it was diagnosed too late to be curable, and that's a tragedy for any family.