Kelly Grigg, who has bowel cancer, says she was humiliated and made to feel ‘like a villain’ at security
07:11, 19 Dec 2025Updated 07:30, 19 Dec 2025
Kelly at a Manchester United game with her daughters(Image: Collect/PA Real Life)
A mum whose sudden stomach pain was diagnosed as bowel cancer says she was treated “like a villain” after her stoma bag set off an alarm at Manchester Airport. Kelly Grigg, 39, took her daughters Adele, 10, and Georgia, six, to a Manchester United match weeks after her diagnosis.
But when the family, from Cornwall, were due to fly back home following the game, Kelly says she was treated like a “druggie” by airport staff when her stoma bag went off. Manchester Airport has since apologised to Kelly, admitting that its “normal standards of customer service were not met”.
Kelly said: “I obviously beeped when I went through the machine because of the stoma. They wouldn’t let me go in my bag to get the travel certificate that they give you when you travel with a stoma.
“They basically took me away as if I were a druggie… they were really cruel. I had a maxi dress on, and I had to lift that up and show them the stoma bag.
“A nurse had previously advised me to put a mint in the bag to keep it smelling nice. On inspection they spotted the mint and clearly thought it was a drug.
Kelly at a Manchester United game with her daughters(Image: Collect/PA Real Life)
“They were really, really horrible – they did treat me like a villain. They didn’t check if I was with anybody. Luckily, I was with my mum and my husband, so they could care for the children, but otherwise they would have been on their own.”
Cancer diagnosis came weeks earlier
Kelly’s life had turned upside down weeks earlier, at a time she had been eagerly counting down to a family holiday to Portugal for her husband Matthew’s 40th birthday. She woke up at 2.30am on July 9 with “excruciating” stomach pain that worsened throughout the day.
At first, she thought she might be suffering from a hernia or appendicitis but, after speaking with her GP the same day, she was rushed to hospital where scans revealed severe inflammation in her abdomen. “They said they hoped it was blood causing it, but they needed to give me keyhole surgery to flush the blood out, and then they’d be able to see what was going on,” Kelly said.
Kelly said she was ‘humiliated’ by her treatment at Manchester Airport(Image: Collect/PA Real Life)
“They told me in the worst-case scenario I’d wake up with a stoma bag.” When she awoke, she looked down and the “first thing” she saw was a stoma bag, and doctors said they “hope it will be reversible in the future”.
Kelly and her husband were told that, during surgery, doctors had discovered a tumour on her sigmoid colon – the S-shaped final part of the large intestine leading into the rectum – and had taken a biopsy to determine whether it was cancerous. She said the doctors explained that even if it was not cancer, she would still require “aggressive chemotherapy” to reduce the inflammation.
“At that point, I heard chemotherapy and just thought the worst,” she said. While recovering from surgery on the ward, Kelly initially found herself surrounded by elderly patients and felt “quite lonely”, until she met a woman in her 30s who also had a stoma bag.
Kelly with her family(Image: Collect/PA Real Life)
She explained: “We got chatting and she just gave me the strength and the determination that I was going to be able to do it myself, and that there is nothing to be worried about.” Kelly was discharged a few days later and had to wait three weeks for the biopsy results.
She was subsequently diagnosed with T4 bowel cancer, meaning the tumour had grown through the outer layer of the bowel wall and into the tissue covering the bowel and nearby organs. Kelly added: “Doctors said the pain I felt on July 9 was the cancer bursting through my bowel wall – they think I’ve had cancer and been living with it for ages, but that day was when it got so big that it burst through the wall.
“We were expecting it and my six-year-old doesn’t really understand it, but she turns off the telly when any cancer adverts come on. My 10-year-old really struggled – it wasn’t tears or anything but she would kick off about things she wouldn’t normally get annoyed at.”
‘Manchester Airport humiliated me’
Kelly was due to begin chemotherapy around a week later, but delayed treatment by a few days to take her daughters to Manchester to watch the Red Devils play. The family flew from Newquay Airport and, on their return on August 18, Kelly said Manchester Airport security staff were “absolutely awful”.
When Kelly “clearly got upset”, she said a manager abruptly told her the staff were “just doing their job”. “I just said to them, ‘I hope that no female in your family is treated this way’ and left it at that,” Kelly told PA Real Life. “I was so humiliated and I complained to them, and I felt they didn’t care when they responded – it was awful.”
A Manchester Airport spokesperson said: “We are committed to making sure all passengers feel respected and supported throughout their journey while at the same time meeting necessarily strict security standards. Although these two priorities can sometimes be hard to balance it is never our intention to make passengers feel uncomfortable.
Kelly with her husband and their two daughters(Image: Collect/PA Real Life)
“Having reviewed the incident we can confirm that the security screening in question was conducted in accordance with the standards set by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), although it is clear that some of our normal standards of customer service were not met and we apologise for that.”
On returning to Cornwall, Kelly began chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and after finishing treatment in October, she underwent another CT scan which revealed her tumour had stayed the same size and the cancer had spread to her ovaries. As a result, she was referred to the Peritoneal Malignancy Institute in Basingstoke.
Her first consultation is on December 29 to determine whether doctors are “willing to operate” to remove the tumour and perform a hysterectomy. If surgery is not an option, she said her cancer will be terminal.
“I’m a very positive individual but behind closed doors I get emotional and I can have a lack of tolerance and be angry,” she added. Her husband and eight friends are set to cycle from St Stephens to Land’s End and back to raise funds for Bowel Cancer UK.
At the time of publication, they had raised £4,600. Kelly said: “It’s a great feeling knowing that people care and are helping raise money towards the charity – I had no symptoms apart from the stomach pain and I think it’s important people know this can happen.”
Pascale Harvie, president and general manager of JustGiving, said: “Kelly’s commitment to raising vital funds and awareness for Bowel Cancer UK is truly inspiring. We wish her the best of luck in her fundraising journey and will be cheering on the entire team for their sponsored cycle in April.”
To donate to the fundraiser, click here.