I was so bloated I looked 6 months pregnant – but it turned out to be stage 4 bowel cancer

LONG-haul flights and trips abroad can leave you feeling a bit ropy.

So when Zu Rafalat returned from a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Costa Rica, she thought her bloated stomach and painful cramps was probably a bug.

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But the 38-year-old, from Finsbury Park, north London, says that after two weeks her tummy had become so swollen she looked six months pregnant.

Doctors initially sent her away with tablets for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but when her symptoms worsened she decided to get a second opinion.

Eight weeks after first feeling unwell, Zu saw a private GP through work and was devastated to discover she actually had stage 4 bowel cancer.

Fewer than one in ten people survive bowel cancer if it's picked up at stage 4, but detected quickly, more than nine in ten patients will live five years or longer.

Early diagnosis is key, which is why The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign - to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease, to empower everyone to check themselves.

'Dicing with death'

Zu said: "Just a couple of months before my diagnosis, I was diving with sharks a 30-hour sail from the Costa Rican mainland in Central America.

"The instructor warned us that if anything went wrong we were a long way from the nearest hospital.

"Little did I know that while he was telling us to beware of sharks, I was already dicing with death, with a ticking time bomb inside me."

My tummy was so swollen that I had to buy maternity jeans and it looked like I was six months pregnant

Zu Rafalat

Recalling her experience just before Christmas last year, she said: "I started feeling quite rough not long after I stepped off the plane.

"I thought I'd caught a bug, but it felt a lot more abdominal than your usual bug. I was constipated and not very comfortable at all."

After her symptoms had persisted for two weeks she saw her GP, who took one look at her swollen belly and asked if she could be pregnant.

She said: "My tummy was so swollen that I had to buy maternity jeans and it looked like I was six months pregnant.

"I knew I wasn't, it would have been impossible, so when that was ruled out, I was sent away with peppermint oil tablets for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)."

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Six weeks later, Zu wasn't feeling any better, adding: "I couldn't eat and I had no appetite. I was living on a diet of chicken broth and green vegetable smoothies.

"On February 20, I saw a private GP, who came to my office. She asked me a few questions and when she gave me an examination, she seemed quite worried.

"That's when she said I should see a gastric specialist as soon as possible."

Referred to The London Clinic, in Marylebone, central London, Zu had a CT scan and two hours later was told by doctors that a mass had been detected on her right ovary.

Scheduled for a biopsy that afternoon, having initially suspected she had ovarian cancer, three days later, doctors told Zu they now thought the cancer was in her bowel.

Devastating diagnosis

She said: "I was hoping, best case scenario, that the mass was a benign tumour on my right ovary and that would be it. Sadly that wasn't the case."

Following further tests, including a another CT scan, an MRI scan, an ultrasound and a colonoscopy, looking inside her bowel, that same week, doctors confirmed she had stage four bowel cancer.

Zu said: "It was a lot to take in, but getting upset about things doesn't do any good.

"I just wanted a plan of action. Straight away I asked the doctor when he could book me in for surgery - I wanted him to get this cancer out of my body.

"I told him I was happy for him to take whatever was necessary out to get rid of the cancer."

I wanted him to get this cancer out of my body

Zu

Waking up after the eight-hour operation on March 18, Zu was told by her surgeon that they had removed as much cancer as possible - but this had also meant taking out her ovaries, womb, Fallopian tubes, uterus and spleen.

Tumours had also been removed from her bowel, liver and diaphragm.

Discussing the moment she realised she would not be able to have her own biological children, Zu said: "I hadn't thought about having children, as I'd never met the right person to have them with.

"To be honest, I felt a sense of relief, that the choice not to have children had been made for me."

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Recovering quickly from the invasive surgery, Zu was back on her feet in a matter of weeks - but she still had gruelling rounds of chemotherapy to get through.

Zu said: "The doctor reeled off the possible side effects and I expected to get one or two, but I experienced every single one of them.

"Rashes, sores, vomiting - I lost about 30 per cent of my hair, too.

"I would wake up and find it physically impossible to move. I had to stay with my parents it was that bad."

Side-effects

After four cycles, with no sign of the side effects improving, Zu tested positive for a dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency (DPD), an enzyme deficiency, which makes the side effects of chemotherapy harsher.

As a result, she was switched to a new form of chemo at a lower dose.

But, after three more cycles, in September doctors decided the side effects outweighed the benefits and she was taken off the treatment.

She said: "I was not very well by that point. The chemotherapy had destroyed my digestive system.

"My body couldn't absorb water, it became so bad, and I had be fed through an IV."

At a follow-up scan last week, Zu was told that "trace amounts" of cancer have returned in her peritoneum - the lining of the abdomen.

Now having regular scans every three months for the next two years, to see if the cancer has spread, Zu hopes to have further surgery at some point in the future.

"Right now the only drugs I'm taking are follow-up medication from my operation to help my immune system but I'm hoping for surgery in the future to get rid of any tumours that might appear,” she said.

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"I haven't been given a prognosis by doctors, they're not sure what the outcome will be.

"But despite being diagnosed with stage four cancer, I've only got traces left in my body and that's got to be a good thing."

Throwing herself back into her healthy lifestyle, including walking 10,000 steps a day and doing yoga daily, Zu remains hopeful for the future.

"I look at cancer as a condition I have to live with for as long as possible," she said.

"But, ultimately, I'd rather live a short but good life, than a long bad one.

"Doctors might not have used the word terminal, but I know I'm unlikely live to a ripe old age. The risk of reoccurrence in this type of cancer is very, very high.

"The thought of living to 90 is very unrealistic - I'm aiming for 60. But you never know."

Now working with the charity Bowel Cancer UK to raise awareness and fight the perception that bowel cancer is an older person's disease, Zu said: "I've been fit and healthy for my entire life. I never dreamed I could get bowel cancer at my age.

"Doctors have asked if I need therapy to deal with the past six months, but my therapy is talking about it. I've handled it surprisingly well, as I'm a realist.

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"Hope keeps me going and you never know what might change.

"I always laugh with my family that I only need to stay alive long enough for them to develop the next step in treatment.

"But for now, I just want to raise awareness and put bowel cancer on the radar."