Our 82 year old mother was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer in December 2019 - No treatment yet but Radiotherapy could be the only option. Since then she has had very erratic bowel movements from daily bouts of diarrhoea to constipation. We have tried various diets; low fibre, high fibre and a mixture of both. Also we have tried various laxatives when constipated. Laxido and fibregel had very adverse effects so the other option was docusate, which she does use when needed but this does still cause 3/4 days of continuous diarrhoea. We seem to have the pain & discomfort ( feeling of pressure and ache from her rectum, still unsure if this is a symptom of rectal cancer?) under control at the moment with oromorph, gabapentin & paracetamol. What we are confused about is the erratic bowel movements. We have been advised by her palliative care nurse that the rectal cancer is not the reason behind the bowel movements. Therefore we seem to be in a quandary as to why this is occurring. Is it a gastrointestinal or diet problem. This, as you can imagine, is having a detrimental effect on our mum so any advice would be appreciated.