'YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG'
The Sun’s bowel cancer champion Deborah James raises awareness of the disease on Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC2 show
A MUM-of-two battling bowel cancer at the age of just 35 is urging other young people to wake up to the disease and know, "you're never too young" to face it.
Deborah James first shared her fight with The Sun Online, after doctors discovered a 6cm tumour growing inside her, just before Christmas.
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Today the stunning mum-of-two appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire BBC2 show, to raise more awareness of the killer disease.
After repeatedly visiting doctors for more than six months, Deborah was finally diagnosed after she opted to go for a colonoscopy test.
Her doctor immediately recognised the mass in her rectum as cancer, and told her she was facing stage three cancer that had spread to eight of her lymph nodes.
After a five-hour op to remove the tumour, Deborah who is mum to Hugo, nine, and Eloise, seven, is now undergoing chemotherapy once every fortnight.
Though cases of bowel cancer in young people are relatively rare, with the disease typically affecting those over 50, cases in under-50s are on the rise.
In the last 12 years, the number of people being diagnosed before their 50th birthday has soared by 45 per cent, according to Bowel Cancer UK.
MOST READ IN HEALTH
Each year, more than 2,500 people in that age group are diagnosed with bowel cancer.
And three in four of them are diagnosed at stage three or four - the more advanced stages of the disease.
As with most cancers the earlier a person is diagnosed the more chance they have of surviving.
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To speed up diagnoses in young people and increase their chances of surviving, a new tool is being introduced to help doctors spot the disease, experts revealed today.
The risk assessment tool, championed by Bowel Cancer UK, will allow GPs to combine symptoms with blood test results to measure a patient's likelihood of the disease, as a percentage.
Based on the result, they can then decide whether a young patient needs to see a specialist for further tests.
The tool is the first of its kind designed to speed up diagnosis in young patients.
WHAT ARE THE KEY SIGNS OF BOWEL CANCER?
Bowel cancer can be treated, but the earlier it is diagnosed the better a patient’s chance of survival.
If you suffer any symptoms, however embarrassing you may think they are, go to see your doctor.
GPs deal with bowels, tummy problems, diarrhoea and all sorts on a regular basis, so what may seem grim to you, is part of their normal working day.
The key signs you could have bowel cancer include:
- bleeding from your bottom, and/or blood in your poo
- a change in bowel habit lasting three weeks or longer
- unexplained weight loss
- extreme tiredness for no obvious reason
- a pain or lump in your tummy
Most of the time, a person suffering these symptoms won’t have bowel cancer.
Other health problems can cause similar symptoms, but it is vital doctors rule out cancer early on.
Deborah welcomed the new tool.
She told The Sun Online: "It's important... helping to raise awareness of bowel cancer in the under-50s among GPs.
"Young people present totally differently, and so they need to be taken seriously.
"We need to put it at the forefront of GPs' minds to help them make faster diagnoses and refer patients on."
In a segment for the Victoria Derbyshire show, Deborah told BBC viewers: "The first thing I said was, 'I don't want to die', I screamed at the consultant.
"Secondly I thought I've got two beautiful children and it's mortifying the idea that I might not see them grow up and I was absolutely petrified, I was scared like a three-year-old.
"I've done a lot of crying, I've done a lot of shouting, I've planned my own funeral, I've said 'thank you', I've said 'I love you', I've hugged my children and I've laughed with them."
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