Cancer: You’re never too young
The internet sent Kathy Sullivan down the food intolerance road, but a real doctor diagnosed that she was among the growing number of young people with bowel cancer.
The 40-year-old self-described ex-cancer patient from Upper Hutt is speaking out so other young Kiwis heed the warning signs in time. Because too many don’t.
Bowel Cancer New Zealand’s medical advisor Frank Frizelle – a surgeon and bowel cancer expert – has published a paper showing that, in a decade, rectal cancer in New Zealand males aged under 50 rose by 18 per cent and colon cancer rose by 14 per cent.
In females, rectal cancer was up 13 per cent and colon cancer was up seven per cent. Both are types of bowel cancer.
According to Bowel Cancer New Zealand, the perception problem is not only with members of the public – GPs also fall for the patient-is-too-youngfor-bowel-cancer trap.
Bowel Cancer NZ general manager Rebekah Heal said that, unfortunately, younger patients were often diagnosed when it was too late for effective treatment.
‘‘This can be due to a lack of appreciation of the significance of bowel cancer symptoms, both by them and by their doctors,’’ she said.
‘‘The problem is they are often considered too young, too healthy, too fit, and many remain undiagnosed for months or years before presenting with advanced bowel cancer.’’
Bowel Cancer NZ says more than 300 people aged under 50 each year are diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Cancer Society medical director Chris Jackson, an oncologist, said 10 per cent of all people diag- nosed with bowel cancer were under 50. But because they often had delayed diagnosis, unaware what their symptoms could be, they often had more-advanced cancer.
He had seen a patient aged just 17, and others in their 20s or 30s, who thought thier symptoms meant something else. Diagnosed early enough, bowel cancer was very treatable, he said.
GPs were getting better at diagnosing it in young people but more work was needed.
‘‘People need to ask [their GPs] if their symptoms could relate to bowel cancer.’’
When GPs suspected bowel cancer, they needed adequate access to specialists and colonoscopies, he said.
There was some embarrassment in discussing bowel problems with doctors, but it was an awkwardness people needn’t suffer, Jackson said.
‘‘It is a doctor’s job to talk about your poo.’’
For Sullivan, speaking out amid Bowel Cancer NZ’s ‘‘Never Too Young’’ campaign for Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, the symptoms were bloating and changes in bowel movements.
She consulted ‘‘Dr Google’’ and went down a long road – a year or two – of believing it was all down to a food intolerance.
She ended up cutting out dairy, wheat, sugar, carbohydrates and processed foods.
While she had mentioned symptoms, in passing, to her GP, it was when she spotted blood in her poo that she addressed it specifically. Even then, she thought it was probably haemorrhoids.
Her GP promptly examined her, and stage three cancer was diagnosed in time.
Now 40, she has no evidence of the disease remaining and is preparing for a half-marathon, a wedding to her fiance Craig, and is still here for her daughter, Emily-Jane, now 11.