My bowel cancer story

Over the past couple of years I have had ongoing issues with my stomach/bowel - since around 2010 I had on off symptoms such as cramping, constipation and diarrhea. These symptoms from around 2010 to 2015 would come and go in small bouts and I didn’t really pay any special attention to them – just thought it was my eating habits. However in 2015 my symptoms got worse where I had excess mucus in the stool as well as needing to rush to the toilet every time I eat and eventually blood in the stools.

I went to the GP and complained about this but it was just passed off as severe IBS and they said I was too young to get bowel cancer. I carried on as normal with symptoms coming and going until around June 2016 where I experienced severe symptoms ie: alot of mucus and blood in stools. I again went to the GP and demanded a diagnostic colonoscopy and did not leave the surgery until they booked me in for one. Two months later I had the procedure and they found two lesions - one 4cm polyp and a small 1cm one which biopsies were taken and results later confirmed both to be cancerous.

I had a meeting with the lead gastro surgeon and he confirmed to me that the best strategy to have the highest cure rate would be bowel surgery (left hemicolectomy) and then the diseased part of the bowel would be sent off to the labs for analysis to see how far the cancer has actually spread. In September 2016 I had the procedure which was relatively straightforward but the recovery was quite hard in terms of walking and eating – I was out after the op for around 6 weeks and only fully feel better now (4 months after the op).

Results from the lab came back and showed that the cancer was very early (T1 and T2) where one lesion was contained completely within the bowel walls and the other was slightly touching the muscle of the bowel wall - all had been removed with the operation of the bowel. I thank god that this was the case and that I didn’t not need chemotherapy – none of the lymph nodes were infected either. Going forward I am checked every two months by the surgeon who conducts a physical and a blood test and I have to have a yearly colonoscopy.

This is my story and I just wanted to share it with people so that if they have similar symptoms they can relate it to someone else – I wanted to stress the fact that you shouldn’t wait and get it sorted because you never know what is going on inside of you. I am grateful my situation turned out the way it is and I hope I stay cancer free for the rest of my life and I hope I can help anyone who reads this.

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