![\"Adrienne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bowel3_8204.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAdrienne Hunter was 45, raising two young daughters and juggling study when she developed two symptoms many busy mums would dismiss \u2014 fatigue and low iron.<\/p>\n
Bowel cancer never crossed her mind.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t think it was possible,” the Melbourne mum told Yahoo Lifestyle.<\/p>\n
“Back then, I thought bowel cancer was something older men with poor diets had.”<\/p>\n
Like many women, Adrienne put the symptoms down to a hectic stage of life.<\/p>\n
At no time did her doctor suggest a colonoscopy, and she wasn’t concerned enough to push for further testing.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until a third symptom appeared that the midwife returned to the GP.<\/p>\n
“I’d had some blood in my poo and on the toilet paper, but it wasn’t painful, and I ignored it,\u201d Adrienne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d had two babies and assumed it was haemorrhoids.<\/p>\n
“The GP was in no huge rush either, but said, to be sensible, I should have a colonoscopy.”<\/p>\n
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Adrienne said she was wearing her colostomy bag and trying to keep life as normal as possible after her surgery.<\/p>\n
(Adrienne Hunter)Waking up to cancer<\/p>\n
More than a year after her symptoms first appeared, Adrienne finally underwent a colonoscopy in October 2023.<\/p>\n
“When I woke up, it had taken longer than it should, but no one mentioned cancer,” she said.<\/p>\n
Before her follow-up appointment, she received a phone call asking her to bring someone with her.<\/p>\n
RELATED <\/p>\n
“That’s when I thought, ‘this doesn’t sound good’,\u201d the Aussie mum said.<\/p>\n
Adrienne took her husband, Laurence, to the appointment, but said much of the conversation is now a blur.<\/p>\n
“All I remember was the specialist doing a squiggly drawing to show where a tumour was,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I heard the word cancer, and the rest of the appointment was a blur.”<\/p>\n
Then her mind shifted to her children, Lucinda and Amelie, who were just five and four years old when her symptoms began.<\/p>\n
![\"Adrienne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bowel2_5963.jpg\"\/)
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Adrienne celebrates her final chemotheraphy session.<\/p>\n
(Adrienne Hunter)<\/p>\n
“My thoughts went straight to my daughters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolute terror \u2014 I was thinking I didn’t have long with them and what’s the least amount of time they need with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she began scans and prepared for surgery, Adrienne learned something she wished she’d known sooner \u2014 that bowel cancer is not an old man\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Bowel cancer is the deadliest cancer for Australians aged 25 to 54, with Bowel Cancer Australia reporting<\/a> 1,884 Australians under 50 are diagnosed every year.<\/p>\n “I had no idea,” she said.<\/p>\n “As it turns out, friends were having colonoscopies, but nobody was talking about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was comfortable talking about things like periods, but I found it much harder to talk about bowel habits.”<\/p>\n A fight on her hands<\/p>\n Adrienne underwent surgery in October 2023, which removed the tumour as well as her rectum.<\/p>\n She required a temporary stoma bag and, after doctors discovered the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, six months of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n “It was stage three, but the doctors were still very positive,” Adrienne said.<\/p>\n Had she reached stage four, the cancer would have been deemed terminal.<\/p>\n She now knows how fortunate she was to have received a diagnosis when she did.<\/p>\n “I was trying to keep life as normal as possible for my children, who were at school and kindergarten,” she said.<\/p>\n “There were days when I was out doing ordinary things with a chemotherapy infusion bottle hidden under my clothes.”<\/p>\n Despite the challenges, her daughters helped her navigate the experience with humour.<\/p>\n “The good thing with young kids is that they were fascinated with poo,” she said.<\/p>\n “They called my bag mummy’s tummy bummy, and it normalised it for me too.”<\/p>\n ‘Don’t assume you’re too young’<\/p>\n Following chemotherapy, Adrienne was found to have no evidence of cancer.<\/p>\n Two years on, she has continued to receive clear scans but remains under regular monitoring.<\/p>\n “It’s always on my mind now, and I am super vigilant about health, but I’m living a full life,” she said.<\/p>\n Adrienne now works with Bowel Cancer Australia<\/a> to urge Australians not to ignore symptoms.<\/p>\n She has shared her story as part of Kleenex’s Poo Check campaign<\/a>, which supports Bowel Cancer Australia and aims to get Australians to talk more openly about bowel health.<\/p>\n Adrienne was studying and caring for her two daughters, Lucinda and Amelie, when she started to notice symptoms of her bowel cancer.<\/p>\n (Adrienne Hunter)<\/p>\n The initiative encourages people to pay attention to what’s in the toilet bowl and on the toilet paper, helping raise awareness of symptoms that could signal something more serious.<\/p>\n With bowel cancer rates rising among younger Australians, advocates hope normalising conversations about poo could help more people seek medical advice earlier.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s been a startling increase in bowel cancer,” she said.<\/p>\n As a midwife, she is particularly passionate about encouraging women not to dismiss changes in bowel habits as a normal part of pregnancy or life after childbirth.<\/p>\n “I’m conscious to talk to women about not assuming changes in bowel function are because of pregnancy or being postpartum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s important to be aware of bowel cancer symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n June is Bowel Cancer Awareness month. For more information, click here<\/a>. https:\/\/www.bowelcanceraustralia.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n Want the latest lifestyle and entertainment news? Make sure to follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram, <\/a>and TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Adrienne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bowel6_8317.jpg\"\/)
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