{"id":387988,"date":"2026-04-08T11:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387988\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:29:11","slug":"i-caught-bowel-cancer-at-stage-one-this-red-flag-made-me-act-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387988\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I caught bowel cancer at stage one \u2013 this red flag made me act fast\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being diagnosed with bowel cancer<\/a> at 38 came as a huge shock to Maia Kennedy, now 40. Young, active (we\u2019re talking netball, cycling<\/a>, running half marathons<\/a>) and healthy, she says that even when she was referred to the hospital, \u2018cancer did not even enter my mind \u2013 I genuinely thought they wouldn\u2019t find anything and I\u2019d just be discharged.\u2019 Still, when she noticed a change in her bowel habits, Maia had felt compelled to call the doctor, which eventually led to a stage one bowel cancer diagnosis. <\/p>\n

Maia didn\u2019t require chemotherapy and she\u2019s just received the all-clear at her two-year test. \u2018I think I had the best outcome of a bad situation,\u2019 she tells WH. Now, she\u2019s sharing her story to help others detect the disease as early as possible. \u2018If I could just help one person get detected early, then that\u2019s a win,\u2019 says Maia. \u2018The more people who get caught at stage one, the better their outcomes are going to be.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"maiaMaia Kennedy<\/p>\n

Maia hopes sharing her experience can help others detect bowel cancer as early as possible<\/p>\n

Maia\u2019s symptomsNausea <\/p>\n

\u2018The first symptom I had was just nausea<\/a> all the time \u2013 like all day, every day,\u2019 says Maia. After around a week, she called the doctor, who prescribed her medication for acid reflux<\/a> (which can make some people feel nauseous), but told Maia to come back if it continued. <\/p>\n

Bowel habit changes<\/p>\n

Between taking that medicine and calling the doctor again, Maia also noticed a change in her bowel habits. \u2018During this time, I was going much more often \u2013 and I thought, that\u2019s quite weird,\u2019 she explains. \u2018But I thought maybe I was just having [an IBS<\/a>] flare-up.<\/p>\n

FIT Test <\/p>\n

Concerned about these changes, Maia called her doctor again, who immediately sent her for a FIT test<\/a> (faecal immunochemical test), which involves taking \u2018a sample of your poo and checking for any blood within it that may not be visible to you when you\u2019re going to the toilet,\u2019 explains Maia. \u2018Again, I thought maybe it\u2019s IBS or maybe the IBS had changed with something else, like Crohn\u2019s<\/a> or coeliac<\/a> or something else\u2026 cancer did not even enter my mind.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I was actually on holiday at this time in Switzerland \u2013 I was on the train in the mountains, and the doctor called me and said they had found some blood in my poo, so she wanted me to come in for an emergency colonoscopy<\/a>.\u2019 Immediately after the procedure \u2013 during which doctors did find something \u2013 Maia was sent for a CT, biopsy and was assigned a colorectal nurse. <\/p>\n

After what she describes as a hellish two-week wait, Maia was told the results were unclear. \u2018It was kind of showing signs of pre-cancer, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily full-blown cancer,\u2019 she says. \u2018So they said that the best course of action at this point would be to have surgery to remove part of my bowel and take the tumour out, and then after that, they would fully test the whole tumour.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was stage one cancer, \u2018which apparently is very rare \u2013 the earliest is normally stage two but I caught it so early, it hadn\u2019t spread or gone through the walls of my bowel.\u2019<\/p>\n

The red flag symptom<\/p>\n

The change in her bowel habits, reiterates Maia, was the red flag that made her think \u2018I probably need to take this a bit more seriously.\u2019 That was partly due to the fact she was already relatively conscious of them. \u2018I\u2019ve had IBS<\/a> for years and had ups and downs with my bowels,\u2019 she says. \u2018So I felt like I\u2019d always been a bit [more] aware of how my body behaves.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Now, I\u2019m learning what my new normal is again so if anything does change then I would do the same thing and call the doctor,\u2019 says Maia. \u2018I think that\u2019s my main message for people: just know what\u2019s normal for you and if it\u2019s changed, do something about it and act quickly.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018If I\u2019d left it any longer and the symptoms had stopped, then I might never have gone to the doctor,\u2019 adds Maia, who urges people not to be embarrassed discussing poo or feel like they\u2019re wasting doctors\u2019 time. \u2018If you know something\u2019s not right, just really push with the doctors to get it sorted sooner.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bowel cancer and young people <\/p>\n

Because Maia was so young, she was sent for genetic testing to see whether she had Lynch syndrome<\/a>, a genetic condition that increases a person\u2019s chance of getting bowel cancer and other types of cancer, but the result was negative.<\/p>\n

Bowel cancer is rising rapidly in those under 50 in the UK, according to Bowel Cancer UK<\/a>, which says among adults aged 25-49, cases have increased by more than 50% in the past 25 years \u2013 a trend that isn\u2019t slowing.<\/p>\n

Maia is now part of a research study investigating cancer in young people. \u2018It felt nice to be able to contribute to helping understand why young people are getting colon cancer and hopefully stopping some other people getting it,\u2019 she says. <\/p>\n

Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive of Bowel Cancer UK<\/a>, said: \u2018We\u2019re very grateful to Maia for raising awareness of her experience of bowel cancer. <\/p>\n

\u2018Every 12 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with bowel cancer, making it the UK’s fourth most common cancer. Although the disease is more common in the over 50s, there is a growing body of evidence globally that bowel cancer is increasing in younger people, including in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bowel cancer is treatable and curable, especially if diagnosed early. The earlier bowel cancer is found, the more treatable\u202fit\u2019s\u202flikely to be, with more than 9 in 10 people surviving the disease when diagnosed at the earliest stage.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n

\u2018Whatever your age, if you\u2019re experiencing symptoms of bowel cancer like bleeding from your bottom, blood in your poo or a change in your pooing habits, please contact your GP to ask for an at-home test. It could save your life.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bowel cancer is an umbrella term that includes cancers of the colon and rectum (often referred to as colorectal cancer). Colon cancer specifically refers to cancer in the colon, but the terms are often used interchangeably.<\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women\u2019s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. \u00a0She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner\u2019s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. \u00a0A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She\u2019s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being diagnosed with bowel cancer at 38 came as a huge shock to Maia Kennedy, now 40. Young,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[147244,1105,172394,1107,103,61,60,1135,172393,147243],"class_list":["post-387988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-collection-health-app","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-51e57071-a17b-4e0c-951e-a60212da5f2c","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-how-i-caught-bowel-cancer-at-stage-one","tag-subsection-conditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}