Julie’s story

My name is Julie, I am a 50-year-old mum of two, currently living with a diagnosis of incurable bowel cancer.

At the age of 47 (2022) I was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer, this involved tumours in my rectum, liver and lymph nodes. This diagnosis came as a shock, due to no family history of any cancer and I was only 47 at the time of diagnosis.

I was initially diagnosed five weeks out from my third bodybuilding show and it was my stage leanness that uncovered my swollen lymph nodes that lead to diagnosis. The rectal tumour was found via colonoscopy.

For 15 months following diagnosis I underwent, six rounds of chemotherapy, six weeks of maximum pelvic radiation to the rectum and lymph nodes, a liver resection, gall bladder removal and lymph node dissection, followed by another five rounds of chemotherapy. I was given a No Evidence of Disease status in August 2023.

I spent the following 12 months travelling, training for and competing in my 4th bodybuilding show/season and completing almost all of my bucket list. Then on a flight in July 2024 I started to experience severe lung pain, to later learn that the bowel cancer had returned but now in my lungs, which changed my staging to incurable and rare.

Since then, we’ve attempted three rounds of chemotherapy that were unsuccessful and saw the tumours grow enough to collapse my right lung, sending me into emergency radiation. I am about to commence a drug trial, that targets the tumour mutation of the lung tumours. If successful this will extend my life and potentially give hope to others with the same mutation.

I have been told by medical staff that my recovery, surgical options, response to treatment and treatment impacts have been optimal due to me maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. It also improved my sleep, appetite, balance, side effects, mental health, body image and maintained a sense of normalcy for me.

PREVIOUSLY:

I was diagnosed 5 weeks before competing in my third bodybuilding show and because I was in preparation for a competition, my symptoms such as excessive tiredness, bowel changes, weight loss and bruising were dismissed by my doctor as part of my sport.

When my lymph nodes became extremely protruded my GP sent me for testing which uncovered the cancer.

My treatment has been, IV Chemo, Pelvic radiation with oral chemo, A liver resection, lymph node dissection and gall bladder removal followed by more IV Chemo, 15 months in total.

For me one of the most important things throughout treatment was to maintain my health and fitness lifestyle, this normalised my life and paid huge dividends for my recovery and wellness throughout treatment.

I also felt, for me, it was important to focus on solutions rather than the problem. I had little control over the diagnosis, so I focused heavily on what I could do to improve my situation.

I also advocated heavily for myself, I asked endless questions and negotiated all of my treatments to work for me, my body my choice!

My approach from the start was to take one day at a time, take all the help and support that’s available, be grateful for those that chose to walk this with you and be kind to yourself because it’s a battle like no other.