A mother-of-three who says she saw doctors eight times with symptoms was repeatedly told she had haemorrhoids and health anxiety, but was later diagnosed with a rare slow-growing cancer.
Lauren Toole, 27, from Blackburn, Lancashire, first noticed blood after wiping in 2023 but did not think much of it until her symptoms worsened. After a few months, the bleeding became more frequent and she felt a lump.
The children's mental health support worker says she raised the issue with doctors eight times and was given prescriptions for haemorrhoids, being told it was a common problem after having children. None of the prescribed creams resolved her symptoms, and she claims doctors then thought she had health anxiety and gave her antidepressants.
Diagnosis after hospital admission
It was only when Lauren was rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis that she was referred for a colonoscopy and told her 'haemorrhoids' were in fact polyps - abnormal clumps of cells that form small growths.
Biopsy results found one of the polyps, removed during the colonoscopy, was a neuroendocrine tumour - a rare type of slow-growing cancer - and another was a tubulovillous adenoma, a precancerous polyp that is an early warning system for colorectal cancer. The precancerous polyp is awaiting removal.
Lauren was horrified to realise she may have ended up with two different types of cancer if she had ignored her symptoms, and may need multiple surgeries in the future to ensure no further spread.
Repeated dismissals and prescriptions
Despite getting 10 prescriptions for haemorrhoids, her symptoms failed to improve, and she says she was handed antidepressants six months ago to treat her 'health anxiety'.
Lauren said: "As the symptoms got worse and the different creams hadn't improved anything, that's when my concerns had grown." She described having to push the lump back in herself, blood clots when wiping, bleeding every time she went to the toilet, and flipping between constipation and loose stools. A doctor noted she could have irritable bowel syndrome.
She said: "I was just told I basically had really bad health anxiety and was given antidepressants. I've known there was something wrong with me for a long time. It's easy as a young mum to get dismissed and told you have anxiety. Nobody thought to refer me for the piles even though they were symptomatic."
Awaiting further surgery
In April, Lauren was admitted to hospital. After one of the polyps was removed and tested, she was told the growth was a neuroendocrine tumour. She is still awaiting further testing and will have to undergo one or more surgeries in the future to ensure all the tumour has been removed, as well as having the precancerous polyp removed.
Lauren said: "I wasn't expecting anything like that. To be told that, I was very upset. You start thinking about the worst-case scenario. If I'd left both of them, I could've potentially ended up with two different types of cancer. I'm in the lurch still not knowing what is happening next."
She added: "I just had this intuition that something wasn't right, which might present as being anxious. I was anxious because I didn't feel myself. It probably manifested as health anxiety but deep down I knew there was something wrong. Looking back, I am angry. Being told I had anxiety, IBD, haemorrhoids - if they'd maybe tied those symptoms together and sent me for a colonoscopy, it would've been picked up sooner. My advice to others is to always get a second opinion and speak up for yourself."
