Woman with bowel cancer reveals four symptoms she wishes she spotted sooner

Young professional Ellie Wilcock was just 25 years old when she was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer.

Now, almost three years on from being dealt the devastating blow to her health, she's attempting to raise awareness of the four signs of the disease that she initially overlooked.

Ellie was amongst the 44,000+ young people diagnosed with the heartbreaking condition in 2021 - a staggering statistic that Cancer Research UK representatives say has been on the rise in the UK ever since.

So much so, that cancer of the bowel and colon is now believed to make up 11% of all new cases, making it one of the most commonly-diagnosed.

Tragically, however, the most common symptoms of this variation are often overlooked, or simply attributed to a different type of health issue.

Such was the case for Ellie, who has been documenting her cancer journey on TikTok in a bid to raise awareness.

Recently, however, she lifted the lid on the four indicators she continued to ignore prior to being diagnosed around Valentine's Day of 2022 following months of scans and biopsies, hoping others will avoid making the same mistake.

Pain

In a recent video, Ellie revealed that the first sign of cancer that she endured was agonising pain in her abdomen - something she initially put down to being bladder-related.

"I thought for a long time that it was a urine infection and it might have gone to my kidneys because it's kind of one-sided and it went from my front round my back," she explained.

Adding that all tests for infection came back clear, she added that she proceeded to ignore the pain until it became too much to bare, later admitting herself as an in-patient in hospital.

It was only after this that the testing phase began, after which a mass on Ellie's ovary was discovered, which later prompted the spreading of cancer across her peritoneum, her liver and bowels.

Sonia Kupfer MD - director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic at the University of Chicago Medicine, recently explained of the sensation: "If it’s abdominal pain that’s new or different from what you’ve experienced before, that’s a reason to see your doctor."

The NHS also adds that the pain can feel similar to that experienced by those with IBS, or individuals prone to bloating.

Fatigue

Unlike the feeling of general tiredness, fatigue describes the total loss of both physical and mental energy - something sadly endured by Ellie during her earliest days of cancer.

"So normally I would get up, go to work, come home, then maybe go to the gym or cook dinner or see a friend," she explained.

"But I was basically getting home from work and falling asleep for the rest of the evening."

Bowel changes

Ellie claims that, of all the symptoms she overlooked at the time, changes to her daily toilet movement flew the lowest under the radar.

"Number three was one I didn't notice but one in hindsight that I probably had," she confessed.

"[It] was a change in my bowel habits and blood in my poo. So this is one to really keep an eye on."

According to the NHS, tumours growing within your colon/rectum in these types of cancer cases can sometimes affect the way that stools are formed, often resulting in either constipation, or diarrhoea.

Medical oncologist Dr Michael Ceccheni also emphasised recently that, the stools of individuals suffering with colon cancer tend to be thin in shape due to having been compressed inside the bowels.

Blood when going to the bathroom is also a common sign, with NHS surgeon Dr Karan Rajan recently pointing out the type to look out for.

"Blood from colon cancer is often dark red and maybe even black and tarry because it comes from higher up in the digestive tract, giving it more time to oxidise and darken," he explained earlier this year.

"Bleeding from haemorrhoids is typically right red because these come from swollen veins near the anus or rectum."

Ellie's experience has since made her an 'advocate' for keeping a close on your bowel movements and noting down any drastic changes.

Unintentional weight loss

Despite not meaning to, Ellie revealed that she suddenly began enduring an extreme lack of appetite around the same time she experienced other symptoms.

"On official symptoms, this goes down as an unexplained weight loss," she explained.

"For me, I wasn't actually losing weight because the lack of appetite was quite infrequent. Most of the time, my appetite was fine.

"But in hindsight I remember having, like, nausea and not wanting to eat as much, because my bowel obviously wasn't normal. Hope this helps."