I’ve recently turned 40 and I’ve had digestion problems, including trapped wind and bloating for the past six weeks. I’ve also had blood on two occasions after I wiped my bottom a bit too hard (which has happened in the past), though thankfully that is now gone.

I went to my GP, who diagnosed an infection and anal tear over the phone, but ordered a battery of blood and stool tests. I overheard the nurse who took the blood sample say to a departing patient, “if the results are abnormal you will hear from us, but if they’re not you won’t” (the stool sample was separately processed by the surgery).

After waiting nearly three weeks for the results, without hearing anything, I finally summoned up the courage to phone the surgery, who gave me a “non-urgent” (their words) appointment over the phone for 1 weeks time to discuss the results.

Obviously, I won’t know for sure until I speak to them in 5 days, but am I correct in thinking that if the FIT test had come back positive, or if they had found something that indicated cancer, the normal procedure would have been for them to contact me directly, or at least give see me urgently?

I appreciate that these are not normal times, so I’m not complaining - I just want to get in the correct frame of mind, so I can either reassure myself, or prepare for the worst (and I appreciate that I may have to endure further tests in any case).