At 27, Beth Stichbury has his days. Since stadium cancer has been diagnosed with him, when the young mother has thought, for years, have suffered from irritable intestine syndrome without serious.
“It’s heartbreaking, but I was prepared there”
Originally from Kent, England, the young dental nurse began to suffer from constipation at her twenty years. At that time, she also noticed occasional bleeding when she went to the toilet. But it is not alarmed: during her many consultations with her general practitioner, she is assured that there is “nothing to worry”.
For seven years, Beth Stichbury will try to conduct the investigation, up to a first diagnosis which directs him towards irritable intestine syndrome. A chronic and digestive disease which affects approximately 5% of the French population and which mainly causes intestinal transit disorders. Beth sticks to that. But she feels that something is wrong, so she insists, again and again.
Until August 2024, where it is finally oriented towards a colonoscopy. A month later, a telephone call announces that she suffers from colorectal cancer of stadium 4. Sounded, the young mother of a three -year -old girl learns in the process that the risk of mortality are “relatively high”. “It’s heartbreaking, but at that time, I was prepared there,” she told Sun.
“I have excruciating pain all day, every day”
One year after the diagnosis, Beth follows chemotherapy treatment which will continue “until it ceases to work”. Because its cancer is very aggressive and had time to spread to liver and lungs. Very weakened, Beth was forced to have a stoma pose to relieve his pain a bit. It is an intestinal derivation at the abdominal wall in order to allow the evacuation of stools, gases or urine. A pocket is thus set up to ensure the collection of stools or urine.
But that is not enough to appease the “atrocious pain” of Beth: “All day, every day. I am incredibly weak and I cannot do what I was doing before or what a normal 27 -year -old person should be able to do. I forgot what it is to get up and not have pain.” Aware of the severity of his cancer, Beth clings to the little hope that he has left, especially for his daughter, Willow.
But the young woman also intends to fight on the judicial level. Beth believes that her symptoms have been poorly diagnosed or even ignored during all these years. This is why the young woman plans to bring a legal action: “I have always been told that I had irritable intestine syndrome, and it turns out that it was probably not the case. After doing some research on my type of cancer, I almost perfectly corresponded to the description (…) I always believed my general practitioner. Doctors just told me to drink more water and pay attention to my food.”
“The most deadly fourth cancer in the world”
Beth considers that her profile blinded the doctors, preventing him from accessing the right diagnosis: “Because of my age, I was not their usual patient for this cancer, so they simply supposed that it was something else. If tests had been carried out, they would have known much earlier than I suffered from this disease.”
However, the young woman actually presented the symptoms of the most recurring colorectal cancer, such as blood in stool and constipation. To this can also be added strong fatigue, bloating as well as abdominal pain, significant digestive disorders, and sudden and unexplained weight loss. As she fights for her life, Beth urges young people like her to “become aware of the symptoms” of colorectal cancer, “the fourth most deadly cancer in the world, because he kills people under 40 who are not detected.”
Beth is right. In recent years have undergone the image of colorectal cancer which would mainly affect those over 50. In France, colorectal cancer is one of the most common, with more than 43,000 people affected per year. The Gustave Roussy Hospital found a 13% increase in colorectal cancers in those under 50 in 2022.
