Tony Jones, Lincolnshire
I was diagnosed with stage 1 bowel cancer on the 14 March 2025.
In 2025 I received a bowel screening test. I'd always considered that doing this test was important, as I had lost a friend to inoperable bowel cancer. He was diagnosed at stage 4 and it had spread from the bowel to liver, spine, stomach and brain. He died after extensive treatment five years later.
Having completed my screening test, a week later a letter arrived telling me I needed a colonoscopy. I was worried but not overly. I had no symptoms at all, although unbeknown to me the tumour was bleeding, but I didn’t see any blood in my stool.
Looking back, the only change in my bowel movements was that I'd get up in the middle of the night to go to toilet, which I'd never done before. I went for the colonoscopy at Peterborough Hospital where they could immediately see I had a 3cm cancerous tumour and a possible pre-cancerous polyp in my colon.
I was sent immediately for a CT scan where bowel cancer was confirmed. They could also see three small spots on my lungs, which was very worrying as to me it felt like the cancer had spread. I was told immediately that the cancer was operable but they were unsure at that time if it had broken through the bowel wall or not.
Around two weeks later I had an appointment with a very good bowel specialist surgeon. He felt that I should go for a PET scan due to the spots on my lungs. Within a week they confirmed the spots on my lungs were not cancerous and the cancer was contained within my bowel.
A couple of weeks later, I was back with the specialist. He wanted to whip the cancer out within six weeks but I was going on holiday to Barbados in May. He told me to go and have a lovely holiday and I was booked in for an operation for 17 June 2025 – three months after diagnosis.
I had keyhole surgery to remove 30cm of my bowel (right hemi-colectomy). There was a small chance I would have to have a stoma bag for life and at that stage it still wasn’t certain if I would have to have chemotherapy or radiation, until they took and tested my lymph nodes. After a four-hour operation that went well, I stayed in hospital for five days. They had me up and walking within a day and although it was a bit painful in my stomach area, I was obviously glad they'd taken it away. The operation was quite physical but mentally it was more of a challenge. I'm self-employed and when I don’t work, I don’t get paid. There is no help from the government for people like me so the thought of maybe having to have more time off work for chemo etc was a real mental worry.
Three weeks later the specialist confirmed I needed no other treatment. I spent six weeks off work. My work is quite physical but a six week recovery was all I needed and during my recovery I only required paracetamol for pain relief.
I was shocked to learn that around only two thirds of people complete the bowel cancer screening test. As you can see from my cancer journey, this test and NHS staff saved my life and saved me from having to have further treatment because my cancer was caught early. I cannot stress enough to people that any test offered to you to detect cancer early should be taken up. If my story makes just one person not to be afraid to take these tests, then it will be worth it.
