A mother-of-two diagnosed with bowel cancer at 38 has urged others not to ignore persistent tiredness, a symptom she initially dismissed as normal. Laura, who now has 18,000 followers on TikTok, was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in June last year and has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy.
In a video captioned 'I would have done things A LOT differently', she said: 'I was so tired all the time and I just thought this is normal. I think a lot of us, especially working parents with young children, think oh this is normal to feel tired. But what my body was trying to tell me is something's wrong.' She added that fatigue was her only symptom and advised others to get blood tests if they feel exhausted despite adequate sleep.
The NHS lists three key bowel cancer symptoms: changes in bowel habit lasting three weeks or more, blood in your poo, and unexplained weight loss. Feeling very tired or short of breath can also indicate anaemia caused by bowel cancer. The health service advises contacting a GP if symptoms persist for three weeks, and seeking urgent help for black or dark red poo or bloody diarrhoea.
Laura concluded: 'If they tell you you're anaemic, please have a FIT Test.' A Faecal Immunochemical Test detects hidden blood in stool samples, a common sign of bowel cancer.
