Cancer symptoms are varied and hard to spot because they frequently overlap with other conditions. In some cases, they strike those who lead seemingly flawless lifestyles.
A 32-year-old woman has revealed how she discovered she had stage 4 bowel cancer after noticing blood in her stool, despite believing she was in perfect health.
Sammy shared her diagnosis journey on the TikTok account Freddy's World to raise awareness about the disease.
She shared: “I thought I was healthy, and it turns out I had a massive tumour growing inside of me.
TIKTOK / FREDDY'S WORLD
|Doctors found a four-centimetre tumour during Sammy's colonoscopy
“I’m 32 and I have stage 4 bowel cancer. I wanted to share how I found out about my cancer diagnosis. Hopefully, it can help someone else."
She first noticed something was wrong in February while she was at work. She shared: “I noticed blood in my stools.
"It was the first time that I’d seen any blood in my stool. It wasn’t a scary amount of blood, but I just had this feeling that [something felt] off and wrong."
Her doctor took her concerns seriously and promptly referred her to a gastroenterologist. Within two weeks, she underwent a colonoscopy examination.
"I think at that point we didn’t think it was cancer because I felt fine otherwise, I was healthy, I felt normal," she shared.
During the procedure, the gastroenterologist found a four-centimetre tumour, which was revealed to Sammy when she awoke from the procedure. She underwent surgery the following week.
“Everything happened super quickly," Sammy reflected.
But unfortunately, her cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes and other sites by the time it was detected.
“I was in the hospital recovering from surgery, and I think it was day three or four of my recovery, my surgeon came in and let me know they had found cancer cells in my lymph nodes," she said. "This is not what we wanted to hear."
"So then I got referred to an oncologist and went through all of the findings from my surgery, and that’s when we found out that the cancer had spread.
"That’s why I was stage 4. It wasn’t just in my lymph nodes and the tumour, it had also spread to a new site."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
GETTY
|Sammy's cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes by the time it was found
What shocked Sammy the most was how well her seemingly healthy lifestyle had masked the serious illness developing inside her.
"I eat well, exercise, I don’t binge drink, I have one glass of wine a week, I have never smoked a cigarette, never done drugs, I thought I was healthy, but it turns out I had a massive tumour growing inside of me," she said.
"For me, that is terrifying to think, that you’re healthy but you’re incredibly sick and have no idea."
She concluded her message with a crucial reminder to viewers: "Early diagnosis can make such a difference."