Linda P’s story

I’m 43-year-old female single mum of two boys, with bowel cancer.

I ignored my symptoms for a while assuming tummy bloating and pain from girl’s things and a few vomit episodes were nothing serious and would go away… but they did not.

After a doctor’s appointment in March this year, I was sent for a CT scan, and they saw thickening of my bowel wall. So, I was sent for a colonoscopy, where they found a tumour and took samples, which turned out to be cancerous.

I was booked in for surgery in the following two weeks but my body had other ideas – my bowel completely blocked after the samples got taken due to the cancer tumour expanding.

After seven days of non-stop vomiting and no food or fluid intake, I was rushed into emergency hospital for surgery the next day.

I had 3cms of bowel cut out and reattached and thankfully that has been a success.

But there were signs of cancer in my lymph nodes, so I am currently undergoing six months of chemotherapy x8 rounds. I’m on my 6th now – the end is in sight!

I’m 43 young and had never thought about this before.

Lucky to have a few special people supporting me through this tough journey.

#bowelcancersux

Thanks for listening

My one piece of advice:

Be strong and be gentle on yourself it’s a tough, scary journey. Have support if you can.