HALIFAX -- The death of actor Chadwick Boseman from colon cancer at the age of 43 likely leaves many younger people thinking about the disease.

Peter Spicer says he took part in Nova Scotia's colon cancer screening program because his doctor said it might a good idea -- and it was a good idea, because it caught a Stage 1 tumour.

"That was eight years ago and I'm out working in the woods now, and really have a fully healthy life," Spicer said.

Early detection of colon cancer could mean the difference between life and death.

In Nova Scotia, a kit is mailed every two years to everybody with a health card between the ages of 50 and 74.

"It's enabled us to reduce the risk of dying from colon cancer," said Dr. Drew Bethune of the Nova Scotia Cancer Care program.

But in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the program has been on hold since March.

"Because of COVID, we've had to stop mailing out the tests for a little while, but we will be looking at reinstituting it in our advisory board meeting in September," Dr. Bethune said. "We'll get it back and running the mail-outs as soon as possible."

Getting colonoscopy procedures back on the schedule had to happen first.

"We had to suspend colonoscopies and even now it's hard to do colonoscopies in full capacity, because of the priorities with COVID-19," Dr. Bethune said. "It slows down the throughput, so we didn't want to do the tests without having the ability to do colonoscopies on people who were positive."

The death of Boseman on Friday has brought renewed attention to colon cancer screenings all around the world. The "Black Panther" actor died of colon cancer after being diagnosed four years ago.

While no testing kits are being mailed in Nova Scotia right now, samples are still being collected and tested, so long as the kit has not expired.

Spicer is hoping the testing kits will soon begin arriving in the mail again.

"I encourage people, when they get that little kit in the mail, to read it and do the test because it could save your life -- let's face it," Spicer said.

Prince Edward Island is planning to resume its colorectal cancer screen program in September.

New Brunswick said its program remained operational thru the pandemic.