Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who died from stage four bowel cancer shared the symptoms she had before getting her diagnosis.
Krystal Maeyke had explained that on 30 May, 2023, her 'life took an unexpected turn' when she was told she had cancer, having previously brushed off 'stabbing pains that brought me to my knees' as a food intolerance.
She had said she initially thought the pain was 'nothing serious' as she was otherwise eating healthily and got regular exercise, but the pain grew more intense until she was taken by air ambulance to Alice Springs Hospital in Australia.
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According to the Mail, she was in such pain that being given morphine 'did nothing' to help her and only fentanyl was able to dull her pain. When she arrived at the hospital, she was told the cancer was 'everywhere'.
She then remembered the stabbing pains she felt in her body over the past few weeks and suspected it had been the cancer spreading throughout her body.
"I thought it wasn’t anything sinister. That’s is why it became advanced cancer and spread all through my abdomen, liver, ovaries and starting from my bowel," Krystal had said of her symptoms.
"I felt each stabbing pain, when it was spreading in my bowel with a tumour almost blocking my bowels. I felt the lump appear and was told it may just be a lymph node. That was the tumour I was feeling.
"And as it spread during that time, I felt it reach my ovaries as the stabbing pains continued. Never in a million years would I think that I would have this cruel disease in my body trying to kill me. Cancer hurts."
Other symptoms she experienced in the three months before she was taken to hospital included feeling tired all the time, which she put down to being a 'busy mum', and irregular bowel movements which she thought might just be IBS.
Putting her night sweats down to the Australian summer heat, she explained that some nights she was waking several times 'drenched in sweat'.
Before she died earlier this year, the mum had been describing her symptoms and urging people to go and get seen to sooner, along with the treatments doctors gave her to prolong her life.
She had also set up a GoFundMe, which can still be donated to here, to raise money for her son, Maison, and provide her family with support.
Bowel cancer is sadly on the rise among younger people, with many leading a healthy lifestyle and ending up blindsided when they're told that the pain they've been experiencing is a sign of something incredibly serious.
According to the NHS, symptoms of bowel cancer may include:
· Changes in your pooing habits
· Bleeding from your bottom
· Feeling like you need to poo even if you've just been to the toilet
· Tummy pain
· A lump in your tummy
· Bloating
· Losing weight without trying
· Feeling very tired for no reason
If you're experiencing these symptoms, then the best advice is to book an appointment with your doctor.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Topics: Australia, Bowel cancer, Cancer, Health, Parenting
Joe Harker