Raymond Terrace woman Candice Gleeson represents the changing face of bowel cancer in Australia as rates rise in young

While the misconception that bowel cancer is an 'old person's disease' prevails, the Raymond Terrace resident, just 37, is part of the reality that the cancer is being detected more and more in young Australians.

Because of that misconception, Miss Gleeson, who was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer in February, said she found it difficult to be taken seriously by her GP when she noticed something was wrong.

"There was a point last year where I was starting to have a little bit of blood in the loo. There was no pain, it wasn't every day and it wasn't a huge amount. I was working full time, studying full time and also training. I thought it was just stress - that made sense," she said.

"I did put it off for a bit, which was the first strike for me. I should have gone to the doctor straight away. I went to my GP, because it was still happening, and explained what the issue was. My GP looked at my notes and didn't worry about it too much. I thought 'I'm not going to worry because my GP knows my health'."

The bleeding continued and Miss Gleeson returned to her GP. This time, she was sent for a blood test which revealed she had a low iron count but there was no further investigation as to why.

After presenting to her GP for a third time for continued bleeding, Miss Gleeson said she had to push for further testing to determine what the cause of the problem could be.

"I did ask 'this couldn't be some kind of cancer, could it?' and my GP said 'no, not at your age'. Even babies get cancer so I don't know my age was a big factor. Cancer doesn't care how old you are, how healthy you are. Funnily enough Google was right. Of course I Googled my symptoms. Google said I had cancer."

Her doctor ordered a colonoscopy, which Miss Gleeson had to wait four and half months for.

"I had no risk factors, no family history, was healthy, exercise and I'm young. I went to the bottom of the list. I went went in to colonoscopy finally in February thinking it may have been hemorrhoids or IBS, maybe even Crohn's disease," she said.

"When the doctor sat me and my partner down after to talk about what they found I knew it wasn't good by the look on his face. I don't remember a lot of the conversation but I remember him saying we found a tumor. Then he said the word chemo."

From her first appointment with her GP to the colonoscopy, nine months had passed. This period of time - between querying symptoms and a diagnosis - is not unique. Miss Gleeson said that since her diagnosis, she had spoken to a number of people her age or younger that faced long gaps - and in one case up to two years - before their symptoms were diagnosed as bowel cancer.

Miss Gleeson is now on a 25-day program of radiation and oral chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. She is due to go in for surgery to remove the 5cm tumor in July. Afterwards, she will go through a six month course of IV chemotherapy to kill off any stray cancer cells.

"I told my surgeon 'this happens to old people'. That's the narrative," she said. "But that's not the case. My surgeon said that they have a lot of young patients with bowel cancer and they don't know why. She said that millennials are now the most at-risk group for bowel cancer."

This is supported by Bowel Cancer Australia which states that in the past 30 years, the disease has increased by 186 per cent in people aged 15-24.

Further studies, such as 2019 global study of seven high-income countries, show that incident rates among young people are increasing across the world.

Bowel Cancer Australia also states that people born in 1990 onwards have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared with people born in 1950 and that bowel cancer has become the most common cause of cancer-related death in Australians aged 25-29.

Miss Gleeson said her cancer is considered curable and is very positive about her treatment.

Ahead of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month in June, Miss Gleeson is encouraging residents to advocate for their health.

"We're all busy with work, study and family responsibilities but it's really important to make the time to see your doctor when you think something is wrong and to push for an answer. It could be something minor but if it's something major like cancer, you want to detect it as soon as possible because cancer doesn't sleep," she said.

"Remember, your GP is the gatekeeper to your health so if you are not satisfied with what they're telling you, if you know if something is wrong, you need to keep pushing for an answer and don't be told you're too healthy, too young and don't have a risk. Even outside cancer, there's a huge number of conditions that affects all ages and levels of health. I don't think it's good enough to say you're too healthy or young for something to go wrong."

This is echoed by Bowel Cancer Australia which states: "Being young does not make you immune to bowel cancer. No one knows your body better than you, so listen to it and if something isn't right make an appointment to speak with your doctor as soon as possible. If caught in time, almost 99 per cent of bowel cancer cases can be successfully treated. Although many of the symptoms of bowel cancer are common to multiple health concerns, please do not accept "you're too young to have bowel cancer" as an explanation for your symptoms - ask your doctor to be referred for further investigations."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: