This is so terrible sad to hear, I'm so sorry for your loss - life can be so god damn cruel sometimes!

I have had stomach issues for the last 2 years or so (around the time my Mum got bad with Dementia) and every doctor has put it down as stress, but I know its something more. The last 48 hours every time I go to the toilet and pass a stool, a significant amount of blood comes out - it actually scares me and I went to stand up and look in the basin earlier and this bright red blood dripped all over the floor.

I took myself to A&E today, in fear it was colon cancer and explained all my symptons to the doctor I met after a three hour wait, she advised it was IBS from just talking to me! I then said I'd like to do some test and she checked me for any tears etc., to which she ruled out and then asked me to do a urine sample and advised me I wasn't pregnant (even though I haven't had sex in one year, I knew this already and then told me I didn't have a urinary tract infection and showed me the door to leave! I questioned should you not be doing blood tests or a colonoscpy and she told me to do a stool sample for me GP over the coming weeks! To say I am shocked how they can just push you out the door like that and move you on to your own doctor BAFFLES ME!!!! 

I am so sorry to hear of the people that wrote into this thread and confirmed they have bowel cancer, simply because doctors can't do their job properly and cross check everything off the list! 

I am going to go private tomorrow and call the a clinc who specialise in everything to do with gastro issues and run all the tests - it will not come cheap, but I'd rather forego a holiday and have my health and get to the bottom of my bleeding and constant stomach issues. 

Thinking of you all x

Please don't say that anyone is too young for bowel cancer. 

I was told continuously for 5 months I was too young at 19.  

October last year I was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer.  

Text book symptoms   I was fit ate a healthy diet.  I was ignored because of my age.  If that hadn't of happened it may have only been a polyps instead a 2 inch t4 tumour. .  I have had 25% of my bowel removed and chemo.   Share Awareness for bowel cancer in young don't discriminate. 

I presented myself to the GP at the start of 2020 with loose stools, as my mother had had bowel cancer & I was worried. I was given a FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test), which showed there was blood in my stool, so I was sent for a colonoscopy, but nothing remarkable showed in the results (6-20% of abnormalities can be missed). I was then told I had IBS, but I argued that I had none of the symptoms - no diarrhoea, no constipation, no bloating, no cramping, no stomach pain, just looser stools than normal. Fast forward to the end of last year when I went to my GP as I was passing bright red blood, so he said he’d refer me to a colorectal clinic. I heard nothing for a few months, so complained & immediately got a referral to a private colorectal clinic, which means he’d forgotten to refer me when he said he would! The private clinic did a sigmoidoscopy & a biopsy confirmed a 2.5 cm cancerous polyp! I’m still waiting to start treatment. If I had been taken seriously when I insisted that I didn’t have IBS & had had my family history taken into consideration, perhaps I wouldn’t be where I am now! IBS must not be used as a “go-to” fob-off diagnosis - it’s dangerous!! I have family members & friends who were misdiagnosed with IBS & a couple of them actually had cancer, not IBS & 2 of them are now dead! :o(

I'm so sorry you were ignored and that you have cancer. Really hope you are being looked after now and you have a treatment plan can I ask how the diagnosis of the cancerous polyp was made? I recently had a colonoscopy and they found a 1cm sessile polyp and took 3 biopsies. The biopsy results were possible concerning changes and I've since had a ct and MRI. I'm now awaiting news. Take care 

Hi Kerry - it was the sigmoidoscopy in May this year that detected the polyp & a biopsy taken at the same time confirmed it was cancerous. I start treatment next Monday, which will take about 8 months from start to finish! I hope you hear some news soon & they sort it out for you swiftly.

Omg...I'm glad you kept pushing and go a 2nd opinion!  I've had low left sidedpain for years which recently ramped up and been having intermittent blood in stool,  fluctuating  bowel habits. 

Coloncopy found a 30mm polpy in sigmoid colon..currently waiting on biopsy results! Xx

I found the wait for a result agonising, but wasn’t surprised when I heard it was cancer, as it had been left for so long thanks to my misdiagnosis! It sounds like you have a polyp in the same place as mine. Even if it isn’t cancerous, they’ll remove it. Hope you get your biopsy results soon. 

GP's, regardless of the patient's age, should be adhering to the 3 strike rule. Basically, if you go to the gp 3 times within a sensible timeframe (not 3 consecutive days in a row etc), showing no signs of improvement, they are obligated to refer you.

I've always said, younger people are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to certain cancer. Bowel cancer being one of them. If i as a 48 year old presented with the exact same symptoms as a 20 something, I would be referred well before the 20 something more often than not.

I mean, i get why they do it because most folk at a young age do have absolutely nothing sinister going on, whereas at my age, suspect cancer until proven otherwise becomes more of a sensible option. But so many stories of young 'uns waiting months just to get the basic tests. No idea why most of these ads are on TV either. Next no no gps adhere to the "if you experience a change in toilet habits". Some look at you like you're a hypochondriac and do nothing.  IBS is a process of elimination, not something that can be diagnosed with any tests. Nothing found, more than likely IBS.