Naomi Adams had planned a day out with her kids for October half term last year, but after unloading them from the car at the park, she suddenly needed the toilet.
“I’d just taken them out for lunch and I really needed the loo, but all the toilets in the park were closed off because of Covid,” Naomi, 42, told The Mirror.
She was so desperate she couldn’t wait, so she bundled nine-year-old Summer and seven-year-old Lottie back into the car and drove home.
On the way back, they passed a farm shop and Naomi seized her opportunity to use the toilet and ran inside the cubicle with her daughter.
When she managed to relieve herself, the mum-of-two, from Upton upon Severn in Worcester, noticed something alarming.
“It was painful and there was a lot of blood,” Naomi recalled. “I flushed the loo and didn’t say anything to my daughter, but walked around the shop feeling distracted.”
When Naomi and the girls made it home, she mentioned what had happened to her husband Lee, who was cooking dinner, but the pair agreed it was probably nothing serious.
Suspecting she had piles, Naomi asked a friend who suffered from the condition for advice - but her friend seemed concerned.
A few days later, Naomi’s symptoms hadn’t eased - and she began to feel nervous about being away from the toilet for too long.
She recalled: “I was constantly going to the toilet, there was constant blood loss. At one point, my daughter said to me, ‘Mummy, there’s blood on the floor over there’.”
Naomi, who is an estate agent, even had to stand in front of the radiator at work because she was in too much pain to sit down. Between property viewings, she had to plan opportunities to use the toilet.
“In about three weeks, it went from this one-off event to completely controlling my life,” she said.
Naomi went to see the doctor who examined her immediately, thinking she might have Crohn's or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). By now, Naomi was living on a liquid diet to control her bowel movements.
After the doctor booked her in for a colonoscopy, Naomi called her dad, Davro, to ask if there was a history of IBS in the family.
At the time, Davro was coming to the end of a radiotherapy cycle for tongue cancer.
After a scan revealed a shadow in his bowel, he’d been booked in for a colonoscopy too - on the same day as his daughter.
On Tuesday, 30 November 2021, Naomi and her dad went into the same hospital for their tests - and for Davro, it was good news. The shadow on his PET scan was nothing to worry about.
Tragically, Naomi’s news was much more sinister - an enormous tumour had blocked the camera.
“They told me straight away they couldn’t get the camera around because I had a tumour,” Naomi recalled.
After receiving the devastating news, Naomi called her sister Sarah Jane, nicknamed SJ, to tell her. Then came an anxious wait while she had MRI and CT scans to determine her exact diagnosis.
But Naomi’s condition was worsening quickly and soon she was laid up in bed in excruciating pain.
Although there were so many unknowns in their future, SJ thinks the hardest part was seeing her sister suffering.
“Even morphine wasn’t helping. It was 24 hours of round-the-clock caring for someone who shouldn’t be in that much agony,” SJ described.
Naomi added: “I’m a mum with two kids. I don’t want them to see me in that much pain.”
Finally, on 22nd December, Naomi, Lee and SJ met with a doctor to discuss the scan results.
“We were told I had a stage three cancerous tumour in the upper rectum, a spot on my liver and a suspected spot on my lymph node,” Naomi recalled.
“[The doctor] said I’d need radiotherapy, chemotherapy, a bowel resection and a liver resection, and I’d need a colostomy bag.”
The sisters, who were staying at a holiday home over Christmas, put on a brave face when they went back home to their families.
“It was a mix of emotions, It would be a lot of operations,” Naomi said. “SJ and Lee’s words were that it would be difficult, but it meant they would get to keep me.”
On Christmas Eve, the whole family went back to hospital for what was supposed to be a happy day - Davro’s final radiotherapy session.
But while he was having treatment, Naomi, SJ and Lee were just a few floors away meeting the oncologist. And any hopes they had for her recovery were soon dashed.
“The oncologist said that my cancer had spread outside of the bowel so it was, by definition, stage 4,” Naomi said.
Coming out of the room reeling, they met up with Davro and Naomi’s mum, Susan, to tell them the news.
“I remember thinking if it had been stage 3 I could have been cured, but if it was stage 4 I’d have to live with cancer.
“Dad felt like it should have been him.”
Heavy from the heartbreaking news, the sisters once again put on their biggest smiles for the kids so they could enjoy Christmas Day together.
“We had a great Christmas and carried on as normal, but radiotherapy was due to start on 17th January,” Naomi said.
To add to her worries, Lee and the kids caught Covid in early January, meaning a clinically vulnerable Naomi had to move into a friend’s AirBnB.
But just a few days after she began radiotherapy, Naomi was called in to see the oncologist and took her friend Genevieve to support her.
But the oncologist dealt yet another blow with the results of another scan.
“He said to me very simply, ‘It’s not good news. It has spread and there won’t be an operation’.
“I just screamed. All I could think about was the children,” Naomi said.
After making the tough phone call to Lee to tell him yet more bad news, Naomi then called the family who arrived the next day to be with her.
But determined not to give up, they began researching alternative treatments that might give Naomi a chance.
“We thought it was on the two of us to figure out everything we can,” SJ said. “We learnt about things like targeted treatments, intravenous drips specific to people with stage 4 cancer, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines.
“It felt like we were sleeping in shifts while researching.”
While researching, they were shocked to learn about how many people under the age of 50 were diagnosed with bowel cancer every year.
The siblings also reached out to people they knew who were living with cancer and followed social media accounts for other people going through the same thing.
“Someone gave us the advice that you need to become an expert in your cancer,” SJ added.
They decided to set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for alternative treatments and consultations for second opinions - and although they have no idea how much money they need to raise, they’ve racked up a phenomenal £16,000 so far.
Since starting on this journey the pair have been overwhelmed by the kindness and support of strangers, who have contacted them on their Instagram account, @survivingsupportingsisterhood, and donated to the page.
The sisters also run a podcast, Baby Name Envy, which is in the top 10 in Apple’s parenting podcasts. Since first sharing their story, they said their listeners have offered them incredible support.
They’ve also been shocked by the influence they’ve had on people following Naomi’s story.
Naomi said: “I’ve been honest about my symptoms while at my most vulnerable, and about 50 people have told me they’ve gone to get checked.
“Our intention is to share it all. We want to share our heartfelt experiences - both good and bad.”
SJ added she’s encouraging anyone going through something similar to find other people in the same position on social media - and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a big following.
The pair remain hopeful that Naomi has a positive outlook and they’re celebrating the good news wherever they can.
In recent weeks, Naomi has been able to manage her pain much better and she’s been pain-free for several days.
“Now I’m not in so much discomfort, I can see other people’s pain at what we’ve all been going through,” she said.
But the mum added: “I hope ours will be the miracle story. We’re believing in miracles.”
To donate to Naomi's GoFundMe page, click here
