Dame Deborah James valiantly gave her all to raise awareness of bowel cancer, which causes 16,500 deaths a year in the UK.
It’s our fourth biggest cancer killer with 43,000 new cases annually, and yet far too many of us still believe it only affects over-50s.
TV personality and podcaster Deborah, who died of the disease last year at just 40, campaigned to change that – and today Louise Lazell hears the moving stories of other young bowel cancer sufferers echoing brave Deborah’s message to us all.
The two brave mums pictured here have become comrades in arms in the battle to beat bowel cancer.
Emma Campbell and Rebecca Clarke met online within weeks of their shattering diagnosis when they were just 36.
And they were inspired to tackle bowel cancer together by campaigner, Dame Deborah James.
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 a godsend.
“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.
“It 100% saved my life as it showed something wasn’t right” she says.
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 was the worst week of my life,” she says.
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.”
Doctors dismissed it as my IBS
In 2019, when Hannah Luder Rosefield was plagued by cramps and diarrhoea while teaching in Japan, she dismissed it as the IBS that started in her 20s.
But when she came back to the UK the following year and got pregnant with her second child, her problems continued.
Her fears were dismissed by a gastroenterologist who laughed and said she was too young to get cancer.
But at the age of 29, and just seven months after giving birth, Hannah was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had her colon, part of her rectum and 47 lymph nodes removed.
Now 32, Hannah, who lives in Sheffield with husband Michael and their children Ily, six, Eury, three, and nine-month-old Arti, says she always suspected she had cancer.
“People told me I was too young but I knew something was wrong. At 36 weeks pregnant I had sudden cramping and passed a 10cm blood clot.”
Hannah was taken to hospital after the clot but was sent home with laxatives and told to see her GP.
Her diagnosis only came after she pushed for a colonoscopy.
Now all clear, she says: “I want people to be aware you’re never too young. Be aware of your body.”
The GPs kept saying I looked fit and healthy
Grief was initially thought to be the cause of Mohammad Samad’s bloating and fatigue.
Doctors at his local surgery suspected he was stressed after losing his father or had IBS.
Mohammad, 39, recalls: “Each time I went to the GP, they’d say that I looked fit and healthy.”
But at the end of 2020, he found a golf-ball sized lump in his abdomen. He went back to the surgery, insisted on having blood tests and gave a
stool sample.
And in May 2021, a colonoscopy confirmed he had stage three bowel cancer. “I wanted the world to swallow me up,” says project manager Mohammad who lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Noor, daughter Isha, 10, and nine-year-old son, Musa.
A week into chemotherapy, he developed a lung infection that lasted for 20 weeks.
During that time, the tumour grew to the size of a small watermelon and perforated his bowel. Mohammad needed emergency surgery to remove it and fit a stoma.
Now recovering and in remission, he says: “Coming out of the operation, I was so grateful to see my kids again.
“There is so much stigma and taboo around cancer which I want to help break down, especially around having a stoma fitted.”
I don’t smoke or drink… I couldn’t comprehend how I had got cancer
Oncology researcher Ning Yu was diagnosed with bowel cancer which had spread to her liver and right ovary in March 2020. Despite three operations and intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she refused to lose hope.
“My children have got me through this,” says single mum Ning, 44, who lives with sons Cason, 13, and Ethan, 10, in Potters Bar,
Herts. “You have to hold on to hope.”
Bloating, back pain and infections she suffered a few years before her diagnosis were thought to have been caused by stress or excess stomach acid.
But in February 2020, she felt pain walking and sitting and noticed dark spotting so she went to A&E. Days later, she was diagnosed.
Ning says: “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I exercise regularly… I couldn’t comprehend how I had this.”
In March, Ning had part of her colon and right ovary removed and a stoma fitted, followed by six cycles of chemotherapy, before liver surgery in August and another 12 weeks of chemotherapy.
She was told she was in remission in February 2021 but
a few months later, cancer was found in her lymph nodes, leading
to more chemotherapy and further surgery to remove her left ovary.
Now having maintenance chemotherapy, Ning says: “Bowel Cancer UK have been an immense help and uplifting to me.”
Disease left me gripped by so many awful fears
Just a few months after meeting the love of her life, palliative care manager Claire Banks was diagnosed with stage two bowel cancer.
It was November 2012 and, then 35 with a seven-year-old son Jacob, she was gripped by overwhelming fears.
Fear for her son, fear over how new love Ian Banks, 46, would react, fear of having a stoma and fear that the treatment would leave her infertile. So Claire paid £5,000 to harvest her eggs at a private fertility clinic in case she wanted IVF later.
She also had hypnotherapy to overcome her fear of stoma bags after being a clinical nurse specialist in stoma care for eight years.
Now clear of cancer Claire, 45, wed Ian in 2017. Jacob is flourishing, her stoma has been reversed and she’s decided it’s best not to have another child.
Today palliative care manager Claire, of Shavington, Cheshire, says: “I feel so grateful for life. Not having more children will always be raw, but we have a lovely life and Jacob, now 17, makes me proud every day.
“I have given back over the years with charity work, talks and working as a specialist to help others who were in the same situation I was.”
Claire, who had chemo-radiotherapy at Manchester’s Christie Hospital which is now trialling new treatments, adds: “The 10-year anniversary of my surgery is in June, near Jacob’s 18th birthday, so we will be having a big celebration together.”
Things to watch 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
bowelcanceruk.org.uk
