David M’s story

My name is David and I am a Stage 4 bowel cancer fighter!

I am 58, married to Liz, and together we have two wonderful children, Seth 22 and Lucy 20.

I was first diagnosed in July 2025 after an appointment with my doctor, the first time I had met him and the first time I had been to a doctor in over five years. I had a bit of blood in my poo, and I probably noticed it at least six months before, but I thought I was bomb proof! and passed it off as from a haemorrhoid! Other than that, I showed no symptoms at all.

From there he ordered a colonoscopy, which I attended to promptly.

Straight away they discovered the mass and ordered PET and MRI Scans and a specialist appointment with a colorectal surgeon. The journey had begun!

A large mass in my colon was found and initially I was told I was Stage 3 as the metastases to my liver were missed in the report by the radiologist from the PET and MRI scans.

The scans also revealed another primary cancer in the middle of my right kidney – a completely separate diagnosis of a relatively slow growing but dangerous primary cancer.

Surgery was planned and undertaken successfully removing 20cm of my colon and the placement of an ileostomy (where I poo out of my stomach into a bag). This was planned so that I would recover quickly with less risk of infection so that I could then have further surgery to remove my right kidney and restore my bowel to normal in 6 – 8 weeks.

However, it was the surgeon that reviewed my scans while I was still in hospital and alerted us to the masses on my liver – all eight of them! They had been missed by the radiologist. Two big ones on one lobe and six smaller ones on the other lobe.

That immediately changed everything – my diagnosis was now Stage 4 cancer with masses on my liver. More scans were done and after a month to recover from the six-hour operation and to get used to the bag, it was into chemo. The surgery to remove my kidney was cancelled and I was living with the stoma.

In the space of a few weeks my life was up ended. I went from being a happy and successful husband, father and business owner, walking 5 km a morning, including 75 stairs, and feeling reasonably healthy. To being in a fight for my life.

I knew nothing about cancer at all. Let alone stage 4 bowel cancer, chemotherapy and learning to s#!t out of a bag! The oncologist put me on the heaviest dose of three drugs together that was delivered into my porta cat thing below my right shoulder blade. Every two weeks at the cancer day infusion centre and it got me pretty well straight away! Weight loss was rapid and the worst side effect for me was the inability to eat.

One of the drug’s side effects for me was to cause the nerve receptors in my mouth to send a message to my brain to reject food. I was starting to gag whenever I ate, it was worse with some food then others. After five treatments of the three drugs combined my oncologist said enough, my weight loss was too rapid, and my organs were being impacted. The devil elixir which I called one drug (I won’t name it) as it was killing the cancer with a big reduction in the lesions size in only three months, but it was killing me too. I had to be admitted to hospital twice on a drip to get some sustenance, and my weight had plummeted from 92kg to 63kg. I could barely walk upstairs. Nonetheless I wanted more drugs and was fiercely determined to keep going as I knew it was working.

I was still learning about cancer treatment and because of previous incorrect reviews I questioned most things and was pushing the treatment to the max. At that point my wonderful oncologist probably viewed me as a painful patient, but I didn’t care, the way I saw it was that I was fighting for my life. I went down to two drugs for a further five treatments before remaining on one. All up I had 20 treatments up until now, over 42 weeks (I got delayed a week on two occasions because I was in hospital).

My very smart oncologist is like a cancer detective, all the while he was monitoring the size of the lesions with the strategy to have a liver resection to remove the two big ones in one lobe. Incredibly, the smaller lesions had shrunk to being barely detectable and not detectable and he sent me to a liver surgeon to assess for a liver resection.

It was given the green light. I had previously discussed with the colorectal surgeon the possibility of reversing the stoma and having the kidney removal at the same time.

I consulted with the three respective surgeons, and it was on, chemo was suspended and major surgery with three different surgeons all operating tag team locked in for a month later.

It lasted over six hours on the 17th of June 2026 and was successful. I woke up in ICU delirious and frankly off my chops. No stoma and a 10 day stay in hospital learning to eat food and function like a normal person again.

As I write this on the 12th of October, I am at four months post-surgery and five months since I had chemotherapy. The scans that I had just four weeks ago show no detectable cancer in my body! WTF! I am under no illusions though, I might have won this battle, but I am prepared for it to come back, I think I am in a war with this thing.

I have learnt so much about myself and life through this journey. I have discovered my own ways of mental strength and feel very determined to beat this disease. In a lot of ways, I am a better person for the journey, as weird as that may sound.

I have several mantras but just a couple of them are –

‘Don’t fear the Fear’ and ‘You can’t control what happens to you most of the time, but you can control how you respond to it!’

I have journalled and listened to podcasts and read many self-help and inspirational stories through this journey. I feel that I have never ever lost hope! Challenged yes, but I’m fiercely determined and full of fight!

Things that were important to me don’t matter anymore and I am happier and healthier now than I have been for a long time.

I would love nothing more than to help people with a similar diagnosis through their journey however I can!! If I can be of help to you then you can be sure that you will be helping me too!

Anyone fighting this is a champion! They just need to believe that some good will always come from bad!!

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My one piece of advice:

Don’t say you have cancer – it is not a part of you; you don’t own it.

Say you are fighting it – no matter what.

Always search for the good in an outcome whatever that may be?

Don’t fear the Fear!