'My fight had begun and I was determined to do all I could to stay positive'

People in York and North Yorkshire are being urged to check for bowel symptoms, as a new report warns about a lack of awareness.

Bowel cancer charity warns of alarmingly low symptom awareness in Yorkshire and the Humber for the UK’s second biggest cancer killer

A new poll commissioned by Bowel Cancer UK says around four in 10 people living in Yorkshire and the Humber (39%) aren't aware of any symptoms of bowel cancer – the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.

One of the key ‘red flag’ bowel cancer symptoms is seeing blood when you go for a poo, either from your bottom or in your poo, but only around a third of people are aware of it (34%). The other four main symptoms, experienced by many who go on to be diagnosed with the disease, have an alarmingly low rate of awareness:

· Abdominal pain (14%)

· Change of bowel habit (10%)

· Weight loss (9%)

· Unexplained tiredness/fatigue (2%)

Bowel Cancer UK commissioned the new YouGov poll of 2,470 UK adults to gauge awareness of the symptoms of the UK’s fourth most common cancer. In April alone around 3,500 people will be diagnosed with bowel cancer and over 1,300 people will die of the disease in the UK.

Caroline Guy is 53 and lives in York - she was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer in January 2020: "I had been aware six to seven months prior to my diagnosis that I didn't feel 100% well, but because of my age I thought that I was just suffering with menopausal symptoms. I did what I know many people do and asked Dr Google for the answers.

"My symptoms were indigestion, a little bloating of my stomach and I was feeling more tired than usual. I also had night sweats, aches and pains in my joints and shortness of breath when walking. I have asthma so I thought that maybe I just needed to take my inhaler more frequently.

"I then looked at menopause symptoms and I remember it showing 34 of them! All of my symptoms were on that list. Additional to those symptoms I then started seeing blood in my bowel movements but I had previously had haemorrhoids so I just assumed that the blood was because of that. I knew that it was quite common for people to get haemorrhoids however, I had them for a couple of months and decided to make an appointment to see a doctor.

"I continued the rest of 2019 just monitoring and using the cream that I was prescribed and continued taking indigestion tablets as and when I needed them.

"In January 2020 I was visiting my husband in Saudi Arabia and by this point my stomach had become extremely bloated and I began to experience stomach pains around my pelvic area and groin. My walking was becoming uncomfortable and my shortness of breath was quite obvious. My symptoms worsened and got to the point that it woke me up in the middle of the night where I had severe vomiting, I looked grey and had chronic stomach pains.

"I was rushed to A&E and admitted to hospital where after two days of x-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds, blood tests, colonoscopies and biopsies I was given that dreaded news – the cancer diagnosis. I was told that they had found a large tumour on my large bowel, which was the primary tumour, but it was advanced and it had spread to my liver, ovaries and around my pelvic area. The surgeon managed to drain all the fluid that was causing the bloating from my stomach and I could finally catch my breath again.

"My prognosis was bleak, the consultant and surgeon explained that because the cancer had already spread it was aggressive and classed as stage 4, incurable. The news was absolutely devastating and the first two questions I asked was: am I going to die and how long have I had it?

"My consultant was fabulous and he said we are all going to die but we are going to do everything we can to give you the best treatment to stop it from spreading any further and hopefully the treatment will reduce the cancer which will extend your life expectancy. He did say that I had probably had the cancer for around five years! I think this is what surprised me even more. He explained that bowel cancer is a slow growing cancer and by the time you get any obvious clear symptoms most of the time it has already progressed to the late stage.

"I then had two weeks to get my head around what was actually happening before I started my first chemotherapy on the 15th February 2020. I was given all the information regarding the chemotherapy and had met with my oncologist to discuss what my treatment plan was going to consist of. I had another colonoscopy where they took a small biopsy to see if I had a certain gene on the cancer which then would decide if I was lucky enough to have a targeted drug alongside of my chemotherapy that would attack and target the cancer much quicker.

"My fight had begun and I was determined to do all I could to stay positive".

Caroline went on to say that she's determined to fight bowel cancer and see through her plans for the future: "I'm going to fight it, because I want positivity. It's important to keep your spirits up, especially with family and friends.

"If you do get that diagnosis, don't think it's the end. I'm at Stage 4, which is the latter stages of cancer and not great; however there are options there for me and I'm responding well.

"Even on the down days I think 'I'm still here' and there's so much that I want to do. I've got two daughters; one who is married. I want to be a grandma yet, and there's so many things that I want to fight for".

• York
• bowel cancer
• NHS