Meanwhile Tidy had three months of chemotherapy to shrink the localised tumour in her bowel, before a 14-hour operation at Southampton Hospital to remove it, and now has two stoma bags.
Nearly three years later, she said: “Day to day life is great, I feel so lucky to be able to sit here now because I didn’t think I would be able to.
“There’s a lot of management with the bags but I deal with them and live my best life as much as I can because I feel so grateful to be here.”
She added: “I’ve learned I am very adaptable and resilient, I don’t sweat the small stuff and I try not to give my energy to worrying because it doesn’t get me anywhere, it’s wasted energy,” she added.
She advised people going through cancer treatment to “be kind to yourself and take each day as it comes”, as well as encouraging friends and family to talk to patients about “normal stuff”.
Gomes Dos Santos encouraged woman aged 50 and over to ask the screening department for an appointment if they had not yet received an invitation.