If both parents and other relatives have cancer, is there a free test I can have!

One of your parents must have tested positive for a rare hereditary cancer in order for you to have a 50% chance of having the gene too. If this is the case, their doctor would have recommended tests for you and you should follow those recommendations.
There is no single test for the more than 200 diseases called cancer.

I am a cancer registrar.

There is no such test.

For a few types of cancer, such as breast cancer, there genetic testing has been developed which is given when there is an indication that someone may be at increased risk of that particular type of cancer, This will usually be when one of their parents has tested positive as a carrier of a rare inherited faulty gene which is known to be responsible for the hereditary form of that particular cancer. There is a 50% chance that a child of someone carrying one of these rare faulty genes will inherit that gene, and the tests establish whether they have or not.

Hereditary cancer is very rare - fewer than 10% of cancer cases, all types, are hereditary. And cancer diagnosed after the age of 50 is even less likely to be hereditary.

A sign that cancer MIGHT (only might) be hereditary within a family is when several members of the same side of that family have had the SAME type of cancer, especially if some developed it at a younger than usual age.

In those circumstances, it may be considered appropriate to carry out genetic testing if such testing is available.

In my own family, two of my grandparents died of cancer. Both my parents had cancer and my mother died of it. So did her sister her brother and her nephew. My cousin has recently been diagnosed with cancer. No members of my immediate or extended family have ever been considered at increased risk of any of the cancers they had.

Of my parents six children, now aged from late 40s to early sixties, only I have developed cancer - and mine too was non-hereditary and unrelated to theirs.

The people who gave those 'tumbs downs' to Denise's answer know nothing about cancer. It's not for nothing she's the TOopAnswerer in this section - she knows more about cancer than just about any other contributor, and her answer is, as usual, spot on.

Please don't harass your GP, as someone has suggested; there is nothing s/he or anyone can do to ascertain your chances of cancer - other than in the circumstances Denise has described - and there is no way someone in our position will be tested for any or all types of cancer, much less for free.

I live in England

Just as Jellybean said. My family has a history of cancer but I'm not eligible for tests as they say it is too far away in the family for me. England should be the same as or very similar to Scotland. See your GP and harass him/her.

In Scotland you can be referred for genetic counselling who will decide if you need tested for any genetic cancers.

My sister has stage 4 breast cancer and I have been sent an appointment to go for testing.

Easy really you just go to your own doctor and explain about your relatives and you will get all the free checks you need.