Hi Dan

32 is pretty young for bowel cancer.

Is there any history of it in your familly? It's just that it is one that can be caused by a genetic issue and often developing a cancer at a young age can be an indicator of that

www.beatingbowelcancer.org/.../

Of course it can just be bad luck too!

If it is a genetic issue it's obviously worth knowing for others in your familly too

Keep up the fight

My paternal grandfather died of it so it is looking generic unfortunately 

Hmm I hope we're wrong about it being genetic Dan but it does sound suspicious.

I don't know what your familly position is, whether you have or hope to have children or if you have brothers or sisters but you might want to find out for sure about the genetics of this

Unfortunately I have some knowledge of this from another point of view. My wife had the BRCA1 gene that makes you highly susceptible to breast ovarian and some other cancers. There have been an awful number of her familly other than her that have been taken by it, 3 in the last year alone. The one piece of good news was that in January we discovered my daughter had dodged that bullet and got my copy of the gene so it stops with her it can't skip a generation. Still fighting to get my son tested.

Anyway I've found that the NHS don't seem to take a very proactive stance on this, they don't point it out and suggest testing but if you go to them and say you think you may have a cancer gene they will look at the circumstances and if you meet a certain criteria they will do the test.

GPs are most familliar with the BRCA ones - Angelina Jolie gave it a lot of publicity but they should be aware of others there's an NHS page on it here:

www.nhs.uk/.../Causes.aspx

and the criteria for testing is here:

www.bowelcancer.tv/info.aspx

It looks like being under 45 is the normal yardstick so you and any of your close relatives would definitely qualify. 

One of the conditions FAP seems to have a research centre at St. Marks

www.polyposisregistry.org.uk/index.htm

Thank you for the info!! It is certainly something I will be looking into with my one brother on my ppaternal side, I think he's going to need a lot of guidance, as although a truly lovely and gentle young man, he is very shy and wouldn't be proactive at this, maybe it's something that I can help him with, I just hope I don't screw it up & scare him off it... He has 2 girls and a boy, so they will need to be checked as well - sometimes I feel this has happened to me for a reason - although that sounds ridiculously cheese - Stilton...

I'm sure you won't screw it up.

If the genetics are like the BRCA one then it cannot skip a generation - that means in the same way that if my daughter has children they cannot have the BRCA gene then if your brother is unaffected his children need never know as they would be clear.

So I would find out about yourself first and then tell him if it's positive and he can decide what he wants to do. If it were me I'd feel a pretty strong obligation to my kids to have the test.

I hope this may be of some use I feel very strongly about genetic cancers as you can imagine

I'm sure you won't screw it up.

If the genetics are like the BRCA one then it cannot skip a generation - that means in the same way that if my daughter has children they cannot have the BRCA gene then if your brother is unaffected his children need never know as they would be clear.

So I would find out about yourself first and then tell him if it's positive and he can decide what he wants to do. If it were me I'd feel a pretty strong obligation to my kids to have the test.

I hope this may be of some use I feel very strongly about genetic cancers as you can imagine