‘I’m 34 and thought I just had stomach cramps – but it was stage 4 bowel cancer’
When Kirsty Laing started noticing a “stinging” in her stomach last summer, she never thought it might be bowel cancer.
The 34-year-old mother, who works in the radiology department at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, realized pretty early on that these stomach cramps weren’t quite right. But what worries him is that some people do not consider this symptom to be unusual.
“There are thousands of people out there who have menstrual cramps and don’t care,” she said Independent. “I knew my gut instinct was to go to the GP.”
Weeks passed and stomach cramps left him bedridden. Too sick to attend the multiple colonoscopies her doctors had arranged for, her concerned partner, James Mills, drove her to the hospital.
Doctors booked him for a CT scan and found a tumor in his intestines that had spread to his liver, and he was warned that it could rupture at any time if they did not undergo surgery immediately.
“From that point on, I think my whole world stopped. It was like I agreed with everything they said,” he said. “To be honest, those four days in the hospital were a blur.
“I don’t remember being scared. I don’t remember crying. I don’t remember feeling any emotions about the situation I was in because it all happened so fast.”
Shortly thereafter, he was officially diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, which had spread to his liver, and he began therapeutic chemotherapy, which he is now in the final stages of.
Ms Laing’s shocking diagnosis led her to launch a campaign to lower the screening age from 50 to 30. Approximately 50,000 people signed the petition so far.
He believes that if the screening age had been lower, diagnosis could have been made at an earlier stage when it was easier to treat.
“I just want as many people as possible to have the chance to survive if they are diagnosed with bowel cancer,” he said. “The point is, I beat myself up so much, why didn’t I realize it sooner? Because I physically couldn’t have done it.”
“They kept asking me: ‘Have you noticed any changes in your bowel habits?’ “I haven’t noticed much change in my bowel habits.”
Key symptoms of bowel cancer include blood in the stool, change in bowel habits, pain or swelling in the stomach, sudden weight loss and extreme fatigue.
According to Cancer Research UK, there has been a 52 per cent increase in diagnoses of early-onset bowel cancer, which affects those aged 25 to 49, since the 1990s.
Genevieve Edwards, CEO of Bowel Cancer UK, said:Independent Although the disease is much more common in people in their early fifties, the increasing number of younger people being diagnosed is worrying.
“What we have seen in recent years is that the number of young people diagnosed around the world and here in the UK is increasing,” he said, describing the number as “small but significant”.
“We don’t really know what the reasons for this are,” he added. “Currently, theories suggest there may be factors such as genetics, lifestyle and environment.
“So the key is to do more research in this area quickly, so we can understand it and then tackle it. “I think the key is that there is no existing screening program for people under 50. But if you have symptoms of bowel cancer, go to your doctor and ask for a test, which needs to be done at home.
“This is the same test as the screening test and you don’t need to be over 50 for it.”
The designated age for cancer screenings is set by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent body that examines all available evidence before making recommendations to ministers.
According to Nicola Smith, Senior Health Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, part of the assessment process also considers any harm that may result from screening.
“The biggest impact we see in terms of harms is overdiagnosis,” he explained. “It’s a collection of harmless cancers that won’t cause any problems during a person’s lifetime.
“It’s clear that for bowel screening these benefits are more significant and that the program as a whole saves lives, but we can never be sure for a particular person whether this will have a positive or negative overall impact on that person.”
Ms. Smith added that screening programs are constantly being optimized. NHS England announced plans to lower the threshold for home screening kits to trigger urgent cancer testing in January.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “This government is committed to making it easier to get tested for bowel cancer.
“The NHS is introducing a higher-sensitivity test for home bowel cancer screening kits that will detect around 600 bowel cancers earlier and 2,000 more people with pre-cancerous polyps in England.
“We are also reducing waiting times for cancer, with 227,000 more patients diagnosed with cancer or having cancer ruled out in 2025 in the 12 months to June 2024.”
Scottish public health minister Jenni Minto said: “I have great sympathy for Ms Laing and am sorry to hear of her diagnosis and wish her the best of luck with her treatment.
“I understand the desire for bowel screening to be offered to people over the age of 30, but the Scottish government and other UK countries rely on screening advice from the independent expert advisory group UK NSC.
“After careful consideration of the evidence on the risks and benefits of screening people of different ages, the UK NSC recommends that bowel screening should only be offered every two years to those aged 50 to 74. Scotland has therefore introduced this recommendation. But if the committee’s advice changes, then of course we will look at this again.”
