Beating bowel cancer together

Hope Brown, Harthill

My twin brother, Ryan, passed away from bowel cancer. He was only 23 years old.

Ryan had colitis for 11 years however he hadn't been receiving regular scopes – his last one was back in March 2017. His consultant had retired in 2020 and he didn't meet his new one until March 2022. We did have a family history – our mum has had two types of bowel cancer and also has colitis.

Ryan had been contacting his nurse and local GP since the start of 2021 due to increased pain and other symptoms. He was put on steroids and antibiotics. Everyone just said it was his colitis, so no scopes or CT scans were done. However, Ryan ended up in hospital in March 2022 and was given steroids via drip for a week then sent home. He was bent over in agony, severely dehydrated and his heart rate was over 130. It was obvious Ryan was in pain.

By the time a CT was performed, his bowel had perforated and that was when they discovered the cancer. He had one tumour in his bowel, which was 15 centimetres by 12 centimetres, and the cancer was also in his liver and lymph nodes. He was also too sick at that point to receive chemotherapy.

It was the start of May 2022 when we found out. My mum and dad were in Tenerife. Ryan phoned me to come into the hospital as they wanted to speak to us. We thought this was to discuss getting a stoma bag as by then we knew that his bowel had perforated. We had my mum and dad on FaceTime when the doctor told us Ryan had bowel cancer.

Ryan was diagnosed far too late, he was already at stage 4. Ryan passed away just 13 days after his diagnosis on the 14 May 2022.

I have lost my twin brother at 23 years old. This is something that should not have happened. I've lost my only sibling. Currently I'm on sick leave for bereavement, which my colleagues understand. I've decided to raise money for Crohns and Colitis UK in memory of Ryan, who had taken part in the Crohns and Colitis 'Walk It!' campaign in 2021. I'm at £4,500 so far.

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