When Laura Fulcher went to A&E in 2014, doubled over in agony, she was desperate for answers. She had been suffering from stomach pains and bowel changes for more than a year, with no medical support or investigations. “I overheard a nurse saying there were no ‘real patients’ in A&E that night,” she remembers. “I was sent home feeling guilty for wasting their time.” A few months later, a colonoscopy was finally arranged, which revealed an advanced tumour in her bowel. It required invasive surgery and aggressive chemotherapy, leaving her with adhesions: painful scar-like tissue in her abdomen.
Before she became unwell, Fulcher had been forging a successful career as a secondary school English teacher. When the first niggles of pain began in 2012, when she was 29, her GP was quick to diagnose irritable bowel syndrome. As her condition deteriorated, with terrible pain, bleeding and exhaustion, she visited her Warwickshire GP surgery a total of nine times over the course of a year. “They said it wasn’t serious and, because I felt like I was being difficult, I was apologetic, diminishing my experience.”
