Samantha, London
I was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in November 2016, just a few weeks after my 33rd birthday.
It had taken 18 months to get a diagnosis and I had been in an out of my doctor’s surgery on a regular basis, although I was only expecting a food allergy, or something less sinister than cancer.
I'd had endless blood tests, B12 injections due to anaemia and even an MRI scan and this hadn't raised any suspicions.
It was only when I moved house and changed doctors that during the new patient consultation, the GP reviewing my notes said that she was going to send me for a colonoscopy as a last-ditch effort to see what was going on, “Just to tick all the boxes and eliminate everything" in their words.
I’d been told by everyone in my life that I was worrying over nothing. I’d just started a new job, so was worried about taking time out for a colonoscopy and I postponed the appointment for two months (and nearly cancelled it altogether). I was also worried about wasting people’s time.
During the colonoscopy, I was having a nice chat to the team when the chatting stopped and the energy in the room changed - they’d spotted something that I hadn’t on the monitor. Afterwards, I was called into a room and was told that the team were almost certain it was cancer. They'd taken a biopsy and they were pretty convinced by what they saw, but they needed the results to prove them wrong, which sadly they didn't. The woman who gave me the news that day was a Macmillan Colorectal Nurse at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, and she stayed with me as a point of contact and treatment co-ordinator over the course of the time that followed and long after. The team at Southmead are fantastic and I'm so grateful to all of them for the support they gave me, and I will forever sing their praises.
I had a year of treatment that was a daze of tests, meetings, scans, surgery, chemo, and blood results. It was as challenging as you’d expect for a 33-year-old who was unprepared for cancer and lived on their own at the time. Amongst all of this, I'd donated part of my tumour to Bristol University for research, took part in the UK Add-Asprin trial, and was an early participant of the 100K Genomes Project. I wanted to play my part in helping those that might follow me.
It’s now been eight years since my diagnosis and I continue to have regular check-ups which thankfully, have all been clear. If I could share one message, it would be that nobody knows your body better than you, if you think something’s wrong then push for tests, second opinions or whatever you need to do to get answers.
Bowel cancer is on the rise amongst young people. We need to make a massive effort to get GPs to consider that this is as a possibility during consultations. I think it’s also important to be proactive in managing your own treatment plan, asking questions, and advocating for yourself. And it goes without saying that the NHS needs all the support we can give it, as do those charities who play such a crucial role alongside it.
