In November last year, John Paul Ricken lost his young wife Susan to an aggressive form of bowel cancer aged 35 - just four weeks after her diagnosis.
The father-of-two is now on a mission to lower the age of bowel cancer screening in Ireland and spread the message that it isn't just “an old person's disease”.
Cork couple John Paul and Susan emigrated to Australia in 2011 where they settled in Perth. They welcomed two kids, a son named Leo in June 2019 and Lucy in 2021, who was just eight months old when Susan died.
In the weeks after his wife’s death, John Paul set up the Susan Ricken Foundation in her memory to spread awareness about the rising occurrence of bowel cancer in young people.
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He said since setting up the campaign, he has been contacted by young people from all around the world, sharing their own stories of early-onset bowel cancer.
John Paul told the Irish Mirror: “The ideology in Ireland is that bowel cancer is an old person’s disease - that’s not the case. I’m trying to change that consensus because it’s not true. People need to be aware that bowel cancer is affecting people in their thirties, like Susan.”
He added: “The majority of people that contact me are in their thirties or forties or fifties and it’s so much younger than [the screening age].”
