Take the bowel test, says cancer survivor
YOU would not know it, but Tasmanian athlete Noella Buchanan – who competes in Ironmans and Triathlon World Championships – is a bowel cancer survivor.
But if the 59-year-old had taken a quick trip “from the letterbox to the bathroom”, her road to recovery may not have been so riddled with pain.
Ms Buchanan, like all Australians, received her first bowel testing kit in the mail when she turned 50.
In 2012, she completed the test and returned a negative result, which meant no blood was detected.
But every two years after that, Ms Buchanon decided to throw out the kits the national bowel cancer screening program (NBCSP) continued to send her.
“I didn’t do them because I was fit and healthy,” she said.
“No one (in my family) … had cancer in any form or shape.”
In 2019, she dismissed the blood she spotted in the toilet because she knew female bike riders suffered haemorrhoids. But after a couple of months, she knew she had to pay a visit to her GP. She was booked in for a colonoscopy and she was soon diagnosed with stage one colorectal cancer, also known as bowel cancer.
Only a month earlier, she had placed sixth in the world for her age group at the Cross Triathlon World Championships.
“When I got diagnosed, it was a big shock. I was totally thrown,” she said.
“They removed the tumour and there were no lymph nodes involved, but I did end up with a (colostomy) bag because of the nature of where the tumour sat.”
Ms Buchanon said while she was fortunate to only be diagnosed with stage one cancer, she regretted throwing out the kits.
“I did go back to my GP and I said: ‘What have I done?’” she said.
“He said: ‘You probably would have still had cancer but we would have found it much smaller, much sooner, with less side effects, less treatment.’”
Ms Buchanon said the cancer would have killed her if she had not visited her GP, but not completing the tests every two years granted her tumour a licence to grow.
Her message to her fellow Australians was simple: “From the letterbox to the bathroom”.
“Take the kit and do it,” she said. “I think a lot of people hesitate because it’s not a sexy test kit. But not doing it means you have to do it every day … that is what I’m faced with now.”
NBCSP sends free bowel testing kits to Aussies aged 50-74 every two years, in an effort to save lives from the nation’s second-biggest cancer killer behind lung cancer. The latest participation rates suggest 43.5 per cent of those eligible are completing the test.
It took Ms Buchanon four painful months to recover from her surgery.
She completed the Cairns Ironman in June and now has her sights set on competing in the inaugural Hobart Airport Marathon in September.