A brave Co Antrim mum has been blown away by the huge response since she first shared her story of being diagnosed with bowel cancer earlier this month.
This April, for Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Alison Graham decided to speak out in a bid to raise more awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease.
Mum-of-three Alison, 58 and from Ballymena was first diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer almost two years ago, when she was given 18 to 24 months to live.
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"It was November 2019 and I was feeling extremely ill with flu type symptoms, fatigue and also bleeding, which I put down to haemorrhoids," she explained.
"I went to see my GP, had bloods done and went through all my symptoms. I had an examination and they said yes I had haemorrhoids and I was given the usual medication for that."
Alison was believed to be suffering from a viral infection and it was decided that her bloods would be checked every two weeks to see how things were progressing.
"The viral infection was reducing but very slowly and they said it could take anything up to six months before I would really start to see a difference," she added.
But by Christmas of that year, Alison became so tired that she had to take time off work and also found herself very constipated.
"The haemorrhoid cream didn't seem to be working as I was still experiencing bleeding from my back passage. The pains started at the tops of my legs and it was also very painful to sit," she said.
"The only thing that relieved the constipation was taking Dulcolax and I ended up bringing a cushion if I was going to sit anywhere or when driving in the car, I had to sort of sit on one hip."
Within a week of returning from a sun holiday the following February, things started to deteriorate and all of Alison's blood tests were cancelled due to the pandemic.
"I had to contact the doctor that May as the constipation and bleeding from my back passage had got worse and the pains at the top of my legs was excruciating," she added.
At that point, her GP sent a letter of referral to the hospital and based on the information, a bowel consultant agreed to review Alison's case but because of Covid there was no indication as to when she might be seen.
Instead Alison opted to be seen at a private clinic on June 25 and within ten minutes she was diagnosed with rectal cancer.
"The pain I had been experiencing at the top of my legs was because the tumour was pressing on my cervix. Further tests were carried out on my lungs and right breast because there was something showing up that they weren't happy with."
That September, Alison learned that her rectal cancer had spread to her lungs, meaning she had stage 4 cancer.
Her treatment included radiotherapy and chemotherapy which eventually eased her bowel issues and leg pain.
"I'm currently on my third reprieve and everything is stable, which I never expected."
Alison is now using her experience to urge others to pursue any changes with their GP.
"If I hadn't been diagnosed when I was and had no treatment, I wouldn't be here. They said I'd last six months without treatment," she said.
"I did receive word from the hospital about being put on the waiting list to have the review of my bowel, and that was May last year. If I hadn't gone private and started the ball rolling, I wouldn't have been here to receive the letter.
"If you're not satisfied, keep shouting until someone listens. So please anything, anything that’s not normal, not the usual, not you, ask and keep asking.”
Bowel cancer is treatable and curable, especially if diagnosed early. Nearly everyone diagnosed at the earliest stage will survive bowel cancer but this drops significantly as the disease develops.
Alison has been blown away by the huge response to her story, which has been viewed and shared thousands of times since first appearing online last week.
"Up until this point only my friends knew about the cancer so it has been a weird week. I have cried a lot since the video went out but they were good tears," she said.
"It is doing what it was supposed to do in terms of getting the message out there. Even though I did it for the right reasons, it has actually helped me more in terms of processing what I've been through. But I'm happy too that it has made other people stop and think about getting themselves checked.
"I have told my story and the experience has helped me to process everything better for myself. Maybe if I had seen a video like that at the time, I might have been more aware of the symptoms."
Meanwhile, more than half of people in Northern Ireland cannot name any symptoms of the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, a survey has found.
One of the key ‘red flag’ bowel cancer symptoms is blood in your poo but only 22% of people in Northern Ireland are aware of it, according to new findings commissioned by Bowel Cancer UK.
The other four main symptoms, experienced by many who go on to be diagnosed with the disease, have an alarmingly low rate of awareness: change of bowel habits (16%), pain in your tummy or abdominal pain (9%), weight loss (11%) and unexplained fatigue (0%).
And men are less likely than women to recognise any bowel cancer symptoms with half of UK men (55%) unable to spot any signs of bowel cancer, compared to 36% of women.
Knowing the key symptoms and visiting your GP if you have any of them, or if things don’t feel right, can help increase the chances of an early diagnosis.
To find out more about bowel cancer, visit www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk
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