Melinda T’s story

At 21 years old, I first noticed blood in my stools and sought advice from two different GP’s. They both assured me it was from internal haemorrhoids.

At 25 years old, with a one-year-old baby boy, I had significant bleeding and other symptoms I could no longer ignore and demanded that my GP refer me to a gastroenterologist.

The specialist I saw assured me bleeding was never normal and booked me in for a colonoscopy. At my first colonoscopy, multiple polyps were found and removed. Some were pre-cancerous, and I was advised to come back again in two years.

Mentally, I couldn’t wait that long. So after just one year, at 26, with a six-month-old daughter, I went back and had another colonoscopy. This time, many more polyps were found, and one turned out to be malignant. Luckily, it had been caught early and hadn’t spread to the bowel lining or anywhere else, so I didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation. Had I not listened to my gut, my story would look very different.

Had I not listened to my gut, my story would be very different.

Unfortunately, due to the amount and location of all my polyps I had to have a bowel re-section. This operation was long and very stressful for my family.  It meant a week in hospital and a 12-week recovery at home. The surgery was a success, and I was able to return to normal life fairly quickly, though it would take years to mentally process everything I’d been through while raising two young children.

It’s now been 13 years since my operation and I will be 40 in November. I have colonoscopies
every two years due to having serrated polyposis syndrome, and I’ve never had one where I
didn’t have polyps removed. I live in hope that one day I’ll get a clear result.

I know I’m one of the lucky ones, and I share my story with anyone who’ll listen, in case it convinces someone to go and get checked — a check-up that could save their life.