A woman has issued a warning after her mother was given a devastating diagnosis after ignoring a letter posted through her door.
Patsy Cohen, the single mum of BBC Wales presenter Lucy Owen, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 at the age of 82. Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, and takes more than 16,800 lives annually.
In an emotional TV interview aired on the BBC, a teary-eyed Patsy told her daughter about her regrets over ignoring her bowel cancer screening offer. She said she was “so stupid” for repeatedly ignoring the home test kits she had received over the years. Patsy is now urging people across the country to check for the deadly cancer at the earliest opportunity.
Patsy explained: “You know how it is, you put it in the drawer you never open or put it behind the cushion you never move. You just put it off. I wish now that I hadn’t of course, because it could have been treated so much earlier if I hadn’t been so stupid.”
She added: “I wish I’d done the first one that came through, in hindsight. So I really would urge everyone not to put it in the drawer you never open. It’s just nothing, you put it in the post and that’s it. And if you get a telephone call saying, we need to look further into this, well perhaps you’ve saved your life by doing this.”
The age to receive a home test for bowel cancer lowered to 51 last year and will go down again to 50 this year.
Cancer Research says that while predominately people over the age of 70 are diagnosed, there is an increasing bowel cancer rate among people under 50.
Patsy did not go to the GP about her symptoms until they “became really severe”. She told her daughter that she had resigned herself to death after the diagnosis. Fortunately, she underwent a successful bowel cancer surgery three years ago.
She explained: “The doctor said I’ve got a space next week and we can do the operation for you but I’m afraid you’ll have to have a stoma. And in actual fact I was really quite pleased about it because by then I thought I’m going to be in Marie Curie and that was it, so it was actually quite a relief.”
Speaking about the interview, Lucy tweeted: “So proud of mum speaking up about this. I know hard it was for her, but she really wanted to urge everyone to do their free NHS bowel cancer tests. If you can share and spread the word, mum and I would be very grateful.”
According to the NHS UK website, the symptoms of bowel cancer include:
- A persistent change in bowel habit – going more often, with looser stools and sometimes tummy pain
- Blood in the stools without other symptoms, such as piles
- Abdominal pain, discomfort or bloating always brought on by eating
Dr Lee Campbell from Cancer Research Wales said a “taboo around poo” was putting many people off getting tested. Dr Lee said: “There can be an element of disgust with using the current test because it requires taking a stool sample.
“We need to normalise the discussion, it is part of us and it really is important to be able to be aware of your health and be empowered to look after yourself that bit better and participate in screening – and undertaking the test as is such is one of those such things.”