Zoe Smith-Doe, Newport

I was diagnosed with stage 1 bowel cancer on 23 November 2024 at a colonoscopy, following a positive faecal immunochemical test (FIT).

I’m a mum of two and have a busy career, and volunteer as a community governor at my local primary school and treasurer for the local Scout group. I live close to my parents, my brother, and his children and my mother-in-law who we support.

My diagnosis: a huge shock

In September 2024, the screening age for bowel cancer was lowered to 50. Having turned 50 that January, I received the purple envelope in October. I completed the FIT and sent it off and was surprised to receive a letter around seven days later asking me to contact Bowel Screening Wales to arrange an appointment with a nurse. I was surprised but not overly concerned as I was generally healthy and had not noticed any symptoms. I made the call straight away and was given a phone appointment for a week later.

At that appointment, we discussed my general health and booked in a date for a colonoscopy which was 8 January 2025. As I was concerned at the time this could take given it was early November, I also reached out to my health insurance provider and arranged an appointment with a consultant on 20 November.

Around a week or so later (13 November), whilst I was in a meeting with my manager, a 0330 number kept calling me. On the fifth call, my manager told me to take the call. It was Bowel Screening Wales offering me an appointment on 23 November at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr – both earlier and on a Saturday – so I snapped up the opportunity. I had to make some quick arrangements like going to the Royal Gwent Outpatients department for a blood test and participating in a study for colon cancer markers and selling two tickets to see Wicked at the Wales Millennium Centre the night before.

On 22 November, I undertook the bowel cleaning process — it was truly awful. I managed the first set of Pleuval but the second set made me violently sick, so I worried all night about whether the colonoscopy could go ahead.

My husband took me to Ystrad Mynch for the procedure on 23 November, where the team took great care of me including when I had a meltdown when I was worrying about whether the Pleuval had done enough! The procedure itself was a little uncomfortable, but from my perspective straightforward. I knew samples were being taken and looking back now I realise that there was talk of not taking further samples so as not to contaminate other areas.

I was taken to a post-procedure ward and was getting nervous. The team read my chart and didn’t really talk to me apart from taking another blood sample. That was until the nurse who had been present throughout my procedure took me to a private room and brought my husband in too. My alarm bells were really going off then.

The nurse told us that the team had seen something very high up my colon, it was 20mm in size and they were very sure it was malignant. They had taken samples which were going to be processed and would take about a week to be analysed. They needed me to go straight to the Royal Gwent for a CT scan and all the results from bloods and the scan would be sent to the bowel cancer team at the Gwent. She also told me that the bowel cancer team would reach out to me early the next week, but to take heart that from what the team could see they had caught it early. The best-case scenario was that surgery would be the only treatment required, but that couldn’t be confirmed until later.

My diagnosis was a huge shock. I was fit and healthy, I wasn't taking any medications apart from multi-vitamins and cod liver oil and I had not had any symptoms of bowel cancer. I had assured the kids before undergoing the colonoscopy that I did not think anything was wrong, but it was the right thing to do to provide assurance to us all.

I went into positive mode, as my husband had recently left his job after 25 years with the same company, and had a job interview two days later. I told him that day that what I needed from him was to crack on with things and to do his best at the interview and get that job, as I couldn’t deal with him at home moping around. On the day of the interview, my pep talk was ‘Be less s**t than everyone else’. It worked as he got the job!

My surgery: everything goes to plan

Ten days after diagnosis, the bowel cancer team provided me with the good news that the results showed that it was very unlikely the cancer had spread either in the bowel or elsewhere and surgery was the best option. They wanted me to meet with the consultant a week later. On meeting the consultant, we agreed that surgery was the right option and I was booked in for surgery on 30 December, just five weeks after the diagnosis.

The surgery went to plan. I had a few issues with my blood pressure post-surgery so instead of 12 hours in the high-dependency unit I spent over two days there. I returned to the general ward on the afternoon of 1 January 2025 and my recovery really began in earnest from there. I was determined to be home no later than 3 January and my family could see I was feeling better as I really challenged the team to let me go home. I had planned to have six–eight weeks off work, but thanks to doing what I was told at home, and being able to have a phased return to work as well as not travelling to the office until mid-February, I returned to work on 3 February, just 5 weeks after the operation as I was going stir crazy!

I've returned to my previous fitness levels and have six-monthly blood tests and an annual CT scan. I've recently had the results from my latest tests and scan and everything is good, with no evidence of reoccurrence.

I'm so lucky to be in this position — from diagnosis to all clear in eight weeks; trying to live life to the full, working as hard as ever, supporting my kids through their journeys to adulthood and taking every opportunity I can to experience more with my husband. I worry that because I had such a short cancer journey there are times where I let work take over my life again and not ensure I have the appropriate work-life balance. I do get anxious about my tests and I do worry about the cancer returning, but I also sometimes feel like a fraud about my cancer journey being so short.

Fantastic support

The medical team were fantastic in supporting me, giving me regular phone calls and check ins. They recognised the type of person I am, wanting to be in control, knowing everything that was going on and cracking on with treatment as soon as possible. My consultant and I got on very well — he answered every question I asked and sweet-talked my mum as he could see she was worried!

My support from work, family and friends was great. I told my manager on the day of my diagnosis. She instantly offered me whatever time off I needed, but I said I can’t sit around thinking — I needed to get on with things as if I needed to take some time off for surgery, I didn't want to let my work pile up and I needed to plan for time off. I told some close friends and family too. The hardest people to tell were my children and my parents.

My manager was so supportive being so flexible to allow me to attend medical appointments without any fuss. She challenged me to ensure I took the time I needed, as well as ensuring I did not push myself too much when returning to work. She recognised that returning to being me again meant getting back to work as quickly as I could.

I didn’t want anyone else to know anything until we had a plan. I work for a large organisation, and due to my role, I'm well known. If I’d taken any time off suddenly without saying what was happening, people would have worried, so I didn't want to have to explain anything until I was ready! Once I met with the consultant and agreed the date of my operation and knew how long I was expected to be off work, I went into full planning mode and told my team. I then had to tell my peers in my directorate, who were all so supportive, ready to be there to support my team whilst I was on leave. I gradually told more people but went truly public via social media on 31 December post op when wishing everyone a Happy New Year. The response was so humbling.

I checked out Bowel Cancer UK’s website, read some stories which reassured me given my situation and made note of additional support I could reach out for if the situation changed. Due to how early my cancer was caught, I didn't need that much additional support, but your website provided reassurance that support was there if I needed.

‘Take that test’

I was told by the team that if I hadn’t taken the FIT, due to the location of the cancer, by the time any symptoms would have become apparent, there was a significant chance it would have been too late for treatment to have been successful. That is a sobering thought.

I have always been an advocate for any screening, but that is the message I really want to share with people. If you receive a bowel screening test, do not put it off or throw it out. Take that test — it really could save your life. It saved mine!