Charlotte Rutherford, Bristol

It was while I was living in Australia in 2020, and away from family and friends in England, that I was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

It was a long and rather traumatic build-up of symptoms getting consistently worse that led to me receiving an emergency diagnosis in hospital. My symptoms began about 18 months before I was diagnosed and began in the form of sporadic episodes of severe stomach pains, change in bowel habits and vomiting after eating certain foods. It was difficult to manage as there was no pattern of when it would happen.

My diagnosis and symptoms

I went to the doctors a few times during this period but cancer was not mentioned. I was given reflux tablets and reasons like stress were given for my symptoms. These episodes became closer together and about mid-way through the year my bowel movements significantly decreased but the vomiting got worse. I later understood this was due to the tumour creating a complete colon obstruction, preventing anything from passing through, so my body started rejecting food and drink. Sometimes I could spend up to four hours vomiting and in excruciating pain before I would feel better and then I would just be waiting for the next time it flared up.

In the September 2020 things took a turn for the worse again and these symptoms basically became my daily life rather than every so often. I went through a period of a month of not being able to eat, I lost a dramatic and unsafe amount of weight and I was experiencing dizzy and fainting spells. I was vomiting frequently as well as having constant extreme nausea and stomach pains. I felt extremely fatigued all the time and spent most of the time sleeping.

I continued to get checked over by doctors and in A&E and bloods were taken, which occasionally showed low iron but nothing else. I also did one poo sample during this time which didn’t pick up anything. I was refused a CT scan as ‘unnecessary radiation on young people is avoided due to cancer’. I was told at one point that they understood how uncomfortable it was for me however as my symptoms didn’t point to anything exactly I could rest assured it would be nothing serious.

This continued to get worse and by December 2020 I was spending the whole time in bed. I had my eyes shut most of the time and was too weak to even pick up a piece of toast. I felt delirious and almost unconscious at this point and knew my body was giving up on me. I couldn’t eat or drink anything and my heart rate was over double my usual rate to overcompensate for the lack of nutrition. My friends decided to take me into A&E again as they weren't sure I would survive the night because I was so out of it.

When I got to hospital they checked my heart rate and it was over double my usual rate and all my electrolytes were gone so they saw me quickly. I had a tube put up my nose and into my stomach due to the nausea and sickness and I was only given ice to chew on. They finally, after all these months, decided to do a CT scan to see what was going on.

It was with this CT scan that finally found the tumour in my bowel. Although after initally being told they had spotted an obstruction, I was then told later in the day that they didn’t think it was an obstruction and instead they would give me an enema to try to unblock the bowel. If they'd given me that enema it's likely it would have perforated my bowel and everything would have become even worse. I insisted that instead they checked the scan again, I relayed all my symptoms again. It was after this that they came back and mentioned the word cancer but it couldn't be confirmed until I had been operated on. The next morning I had an emergency operation.

Recovering from the operation

The operation confirmed I did have cancer and they cared for me so brilliantly here. I was kept in hospital for 11 days until I felt better and could recover properly out of hospital. In one of my post-surgery follow ups I asked my surgeon how close I had been to dying. He said my heart rate was so high and I was lacking so much nutrition that he thinks he could safely say my heart could have given up after another 48 hours or so. But interestingly this wouldn’t have actually been because of cancer as such – it was the horrific side effects of my colon being completely obstructed and my bowel being blocked.

Chemotherapy

Chemo was really tough, I experienced really bad nausea and sickness each time after the drip. I had neuropathy in my fingers and toes throughout, my skin became very red and hot after the drip and my jaw hurt to eat during the whole course of chemo. I also experienced heightened sensitivity to cold food and drinks and I was really tired a lot of the time. I did manage to feel a bit better between mid-end of week two of the cycle so on my rest week which was week three I made the most of going out and doing normal things.

I was given fertility injections by the biggest needle I’ve ever seen into my stomach in the hospital at each time I went on the drip to be able to do my best to protect my fertility during treatment.

After this diagnosis and chemo I flew back to the UK to be with my family.

The cancer came back

I was then found to have a recurrence in 2023 as my bowel cancer had metastasized and spread to my lung which was picked up on my two year scan while in remission. I had absolutely no symptoms of this before and was completely unaware that it was happening in my body — in fact two weeks before they found the recurrence I had done a two hour charity 'spin-a-thon' at the gym and felt fine which was really scary.

By some miracle that two-year scan had been postponed by a few weeks due to hospital resources and my surgeon told me that if they had done it three weeks prior he isn’t even sure it would have been picked up as it was small when it was detected on the scan later on. If it hadn’t had been picked up then it would have gone six or 12 more months undetected.

It was agreed that I wouldn’t have more chemo for fertility reasons which was a huge decision but one that I made with advice from the medical experts. Instead, I just had keyhole surgery to remove it from the lung and they were very pleased with how this went.

In remission

I’m currently coming up to 2.5 years in remission. My five years remission restarted in 2023 after the recurrence and as it recurred, I have more frequent scans now. Between 2023 – 2026 I have six monthly CT scans and blood tests, plus I had a colonoscopy a few months ago. In 2026 I will decrease to once yearly scans and blood tests until August 2028 when I will hopefully end my remission and be declared cured.

I feel positive. The recurrence had made me wary of feeling too safe within remission as anything can happen but overall, I feel good. There have been a lot of positives in my life that have come from my diagnosis along with all the rubbish stuff, so I focus on the positives in my life too. I’m feeling very fit and healthy and I’m very hopeful I will end my remission in 2028 as planned and continue leading a healthy and happy life!

There are so many things you come across and struggle in life after cancer. To be honest, I think the age group I'm in — mid 20’s to 40ish — face really unique challenges after a cancer diagnosis. It can really make you feel like you’ve taken huge steps back and can feel like ages until your life is back on track. This can be hard sometimes and there’s lots more I would like to do on raising awareness of life after cancer. But the thing is, I always use my experience to share more, raise awareness and help others feeling the same so I don’t let it get me down too much.

Reflections

Obviously when I was first diagnosed I was on the other side of the world to my family during covid in Australia. One of my sisters does also live in Australia but in a different state and the borders were shut between the States so she only managed to visit me twice during chemo – still better than nothing. I could only have their support via facetime and the same with my friends from back in England. I did have some really good and supportive friends in Australia thankfully who stayed with me in hospital a lot of the time and supported me during recovery and chemo. Cancer can definitely alter friendships and relationships and sometimes people can show you who they truly are while you're going through it (both bad and good).

Looking forward

Since my treatment I’ve been reading the real life stories on the Bowel Cancer UK website and feel better reading them. I think they’re really useful and make you feel less alone — I would just advise people (same as everything else) to make sure you are in the right head space to read about someone else’s journey that could look different to yours.

I also volunteer on the Bowel Cancer UK peer support line so although I haven’t personally used the service I still feel like I get the benefits as I chat to other people who have been through it and I find it really useful and healing. I would always recommend that to people because I find it so useful and I know the users of the service that I speak to do as well.

At this point in my journey, I am really focussed on life after cancer, the challenges that can come up and raising awareness of young people with cancer. I want to empower everyone to advocate for themselves and their health, if something doesn’t feel right keep pushing for answers and always make your health a priority. Fertility concerns, issues and implications as a result of cancer and treatment is also a big one for me at the moment and ties in with the challenges people face after diagnosis.

Being diagnosed with cancer led me down a path of always wanting to make sure that whatever I am doing, in personal and professional life, is aligned with my values. It's something I enjoy doing and I now work within fundraising for a national cancer charity. I want to make sure I live my life to the fullest and on my terms now.