Dying mum, 36, says doctors dismissed bowel cancer as IBS because she’s ‘too young’
A DYING mum says doctors dismissed her bowel cancer as irritable bowel syndrome because she was "too young".
Linzi Page, 36, went to see her doctor last January after noticing blood in her poo and changes to her bowel movements.
The mum-of-two was told it was "probably IBS" so she was asked to do a blood test and give a stool sample taken, but it showed nothing irregular.
Linzi, from Burntisland, Fife, said the GP was "very dismissive", and unhappy with her diagnosis she returned for a second opinion with another doctor three months later.
This time, the GP from the Burntisland Medical Group sent her for an urgent colonoscopy.
A few days later the project manager, who has two children, Calan, aged five, and Charlotte, aged two, was told she had stage 4 metastatic bowel cancer.
'Docs were dismissive'
Linzi was told she has just two years to live - but she believes that her symptoms were dismissed due to her age.
She said: "Probably typical of everyone who is at a young age, the doctor was very dismissive.
"They said 'it's probably IBS' - then they did the routine blood test and took a stool sample, then it was all forgotten about.
"I just knew myself that something wasn't right.
"I still had bleeding, there was too much blood and I was the one who pushed for further tests.
I just knew myself that something wasn't right
Linzi Page
"I went back to my GP in April and told them 'this just doesn't feel right at all and I just don't buy that it's IBS'.
"I naively thought that it couldn't be cancer as nothing had ever been mentioned by the medical professionals.
"I didn't in a million years expect the results to come back showing bowel cancer.
"I was absolutely devastated when they took me into a little side room by myself to tell me - it's not what I expected at all."
Life-saving treatment
Linzi, who is married to husband Mark, is now fundraising to pay for treatment not available on the NHS in Scotland.
She needs to raise £22,000 to pay for intravenous treatment Avastin, in the hope that cycles of the drug, which costs around £2,200 a time, will help prolong her life.
So far she has raised more than £18,000 and will begin her first treatment this month.
Linzi added: "My frustration is with the doctors, it doesn't enter their head - if you're young they just think it's IBS, that's their first reaction.
"They never consider the possibility that it could be bowel cancer and decide to send you for a colonoscopy.
"If I went when I was 60 they would have sent me for a colonoscopy right away, but when I presented these symptoms at age 35 that's not the doctors initial reaction."
'Too late for us'
She added: "Unfortunately, by the time younger people do get diagnosed because we go through the process - it's too late for us.
"I literally cannot think about my situation day-to-day, it's like I'm talking about myself in the third person.
"If I do think about it I will get very depressed and part of cancer is the mental battle to keep yourself going.
Unfortunately, by the time younger people do get diagnosed because we go through the process - it's too late for us
Linzi Page
"So I just can't think about it as I want to spend as much time with my kids as I can.
"I want my children to know I've done everything I can to be with them for as long as possible. It really is so much more special the time I've got with them."
Dr Chris McKenna, medical director of NHS Fife, said: "We are unable to comment on the care of individual patients for reasons of confidentiality."
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.
And the campaign called for a change to bowel cancer screening in England.
At the moment, Brits are subject to a postcode lottery, with those living in Scotland screened from 50.
MORE ON BOWEL CANCER
Meanwhile, south of the border in England, and in Wales and Northern Ireland, those tests aren't offered until 60 - resulting in thousands of needless deaths.
That's why The Sun's No Time 2 Lose campaign called for a simple poo test offered to everyone, every two years, from their 50th birthday.
Last summer after pressure from The Sun and campaigners, the Government agreed to lower the screening age, but a date for roll out has yet to be confirmed.
Bowel cancer by numbers...
2 - bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer
4 - it's the fourth most common form of cancer
42,000 - people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year
1,300 - people will lose their lives this month to the disease
15,903 - lives will be lost this year to bowel cancer
44 - people die every day
30 - that's one bowel cancer patient every 30 minutes
15 - every 15 minutes someone is told they have bowel cancer
97 - 97 per cent of people diagnosed in the earliest stages will survive for five years or more
7 - only seven per cent survive when diangnosed at the latest stage
60 - 83 per cent of people who get bowel cancer are over the age of 60
50 - it's more common over the age of 50 but ANYONE can get bowel cancer, you're never too young
2,500 - the number of under 50s diagnosed each year
268,000 - people living with bowel cancer in the UK
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