Two courageous mums who became friends online have joined forces as they both fight to beat bowel cancer. Emma Campbell and Rebecca Clarke connected within weeks of their diagnosis when they were both aged 36.
Primary school teacher Emma connected with Rebecca after searching #bowelcancer on Instagram. The mum-of-three had been diagnosed with stage four cancer in February 2020 so finding Rebecca, who learned she had advanced bowel cancer two weeks earlier, was like finding her "guardian angel".
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The pair were inspired to tackle bowel cancer together by campaigner, Dame Deborah James, who played a huge part in inspiring the par to take on the life-threatening disease.
“She became my guardian angel,” says Emma, now 39. “I always say Becca was the best thing to come out of cancer.
“I was so scared and lonely those first few weeks. When I found her on Insta, I realised I wasn’t the only young person to get bowel cancer.”
Emma was pregnant with her youngest child when she felt two sharp spasms like contractions in early 2019. She was told it was pregnancy constipation.
She gave birth that May but when the pain returned in September, she ordered a £39 bowel screening test she’d seen on Facebook, The Mirror reports.
After a colonoscopy, Emma, who lives with husband Kari, 38, and kids Jensen, 10, Finlay, seven, and three-year-old Krista in Newcastle, was told she had cancer.
“It 100% saved my life as it showed something wasn’t right” she says. “It was the worst week of my life.”
Meanwhile, finance manager Rebecca –who lives in Sheffield with husband Simon, 36, and children Alfie, seven, and Evelyn,four – had decided to seek help after weeks of fatigue and changing bowel habits.
She was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes and surrounding tissue, Rebecca says: “I just remember saying, ‘I don’t want to die’, and my husband hugging me. I kept thinking, ‘What if I die and someone else becomes my kids’ mum?’”
After chemo, Rebecca had part of her bowel and 19 lymph nodes removed in April 2020. That September, Emma had a section of large intestine and a tumour removed. By January 2021, after both got the all clear, the two pals started fundraising and raising awareness together. So far, they have raised £22,000 for charity.
Emma says Dame Deborah had been a massive inspiration to them both, and she even once messaged the TV star to ask if she would get involved with a reel she was making on Instagram – and she did.
Deborah was also one of the first people Rebecca followed online after her diagnosis. “She was incredible,” she says. “It was really painful to see what she went through but the awareness she raised was so important for people of our age to show that it can happen.
“We want people to trust their gut, go to the doctor and know they are NEVER too young to get this.”
You can read more brave accounts from women living with their bowel cancer diagnoses here.
Bowel cancer symptoms and what to look out for
Bowel Cancer UK is always steadfastly promoting the #KnowTheHigh5 symptoms of bowel cancer to make sure more people understand what to look out for – and what to do if something doesn’t feel right:
- Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo
- A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit
- Unexplained loss
- of weight
- Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason
- A pain or lump in your tummy
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