A woman battling stage 3 bowel cancer has bravely shared the symptoms she experienced prior to her diagnosis, including one she regrets not recognising sooner. Bowel cancer is one of the UK’s most prevalent cancers, representing approximately 11% of all new cancer cases.

Each year, around 44,000 people are diagnosed with it, and over 16,800 individuals lose their lives to the disease.

Ellie Wilcock, who is living with an advanced stage of bowel cancer, took to social media to highlight four symptoms that led to her diagnosis. She emphasised one symptom in particular that could have led to an earlier diagnosis had she identified it sooner.

“Number one was pain in the left-hand side of my tummy and my pelvis,” Ellie explained. “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.”

“But all of my infection markers were coming back clear, so I didn’t have an infection in my body, which is why I went for further tests.”, reports Surrey Live.

The NHS notes abdominal pain, a lump in the abdomen, and bloating as potential indicators of bowel cancer. Conditions like IBS can mask these signs, as they share similar symptoms with common digestive issues.

It’s crucial to seek medical advice if there’s any uncertainty.

Ellie also mentioned fatigue as a symptom to be aware of. “Number two was fatigue,” Ellie said. “So normally I would get up, go to work, come home, then maybe go to the gym or cook dinner or see a friend. But I was basically getting home from work and falling asleep for the rest of the evening.”

Fatigue is recognized as a symptom of various types of cancer.

The NHS warns that “feeling very tired for no reason” could be a sign of bowel cancer, though it can also indicate other conditions, not all related to cancer.

Ellie noted changes in her bowel habits as another significant symptom: “Number three was one I didn’t notice but one in hindsight that I probably had, [it] was a change in my bowel habits and blood in my poo. So this is one to really keep an eye on.”

She urged vigilance about bowel health: “Check your poo. I’m such an advocate for that,” she remarked. Ellie believes that had she been aware of changes in her bowel movements sooner, she might have detected her cancer before it progressed to stage 4.

The NHS identifies several symptoms as potential early warnings of bowel cancer, including changes in bowel habits like softer stools, diarrhoea or constipation that’s unusual for the individual; needing to defecate more or less frequently than normal; presence of blood in the stool, which may appear red or black; bleeding from the bottom; and frequently feeling the urge to defecate even after just having done so. Weight loss or changes in appetite are also listed.

“Number four, I would say for me, [was] lack of appetite,” Ellie concluded. “On official symptoms, this goes down as an unexplained weight loss. For me, I wasn’t actually losing weight because the lack of appetite was quite infrequent. Most of the time, my appetite was fine.”