One mother with terminal colon cancer said she had nothing but abdominal pain before she was diagnosed.
Rebecca Atton, a 41-year-old bank manager from Southend, Essex, was “fit and healthy” before being told she had stage 4 colon cancer last December.
Now battling a terminal illness, he is “devastated” at the thought of leaving his 10-year-old daughter Ava behind.
One’s mother said she had a “rare” stomach ache and went to the doctor.
She told FEMAIL: “I used to joke about my iron stomach. I could eat anything, so when I got a stomach ache, I thought I’d get it checked out. I didn’t think it would be so important”.
Rebecca Atton, a 41-year-old bank manager from Essex, was “fit and healthy” before being told she had stage four colon cancer in December last year. He hates the thought of leaving his daughter Ava.
“People don’t even think she looks sick,” says Rebecca, here after her diagnosis Ava looks thin and healthy, but is suffering from stage 4 colon cancer.
One’s mother is being treated at Southend NHS Hospital in Essex. Every treatment she receives is to prolong her life, she.
Two weeks later, Rebecca sat in a doctor’s chair and was told she had stage four colon cancer that had spread to her liver and spleen.
Rebecca has since started chemotherapy and says she “feels fine” before the treatment.
He says a fitness test recommended by the NHS for people over 60 “would have saved his life” had he had the test at age 30.
The fittest person checking stool samples for blood is currently available from Boots for £15, and Rebecca says she encourages family and friends to check it out.
He said: “Based on my diagnosis, my cousin and brother were both tested for small traces of blood in their stools.
In a night photo with her friends, Rebecca started chemotherapy and said she was “feeling fine” before the treatment. A fitness test recommended by the NHS for people over 60 would have “saved her life” if she had had a test at age 30, she says.
Previously diagnosed, Rebecca and Ava take a day trip together. He said he was grateful for the support of his family as he battled the disease.
“As a result, both underwent further testing and removed colon polyps that could later develop into cancer. Both are under 60.”
Australia has recently lowered the standard age for the fittest to 50, a move that Rebecca hopes will be replicated in the UK.
“My friends can’t believe my diagnosis even now, my skin looks good, I haven’t lost my hair, I went to the gym regularly, I quit smoking before I was 40 but my time is limited and my time is limited. I am aware of this.
Anne is “confused” at the idea of breaking up with Ava, but “Ava and I are very close and her father was great while she was treated like her stepmother.
“I know he has a strong support network with my family as well. He knows I’m not feeling well, but he doesn’t know the prognosis.
Rebecca laughs on a night out with her friends, saying that after her diagnosis, people “can’t believe it’s fatal” because she still has hair and beautiful skin.
“We are a close family and I got a lot of support. Sure, I’ve had bad days, but I try to stay positive, which will help me.
“Some days the drugs and chemotherapy just don’t make me feel good, but knowing that my mom is a breast cancer survivor gives me hope – she’s here to tell the story, and Ava’s attitude helps too.
He asked me ‘you’re going to die’ and I told him the doctors were doing everything they could.”
Rebecca is not only an advocate for lowering the age of the fittest, but also an advocate for raising funds to be treated alongside the care of the NHS.
Since her diagnosis, she has had 12 rounds of intense chemotherapy so far that has helped stabilize the disease.
He said: ‘This will eventually stop working. However, there are many other treatment options, some of which are not available on the NHS.
He continued: “Let me clarify that my chance of living five years is less than 10 percent. I am fully aware that treatment will not cure me, but it can prolong my life and give me a chance to see my daughter Ava reach her teenage years. ”
While Rebecca continues her NHS treatment, her painful dose of morphine has doubled and she thinks her next screening will “not be good”.
He told FEMAIL: “Morphine often makes me feel like a space cadet, and I have a feeling that my next scan, which is only going to be next week, is not going to be good.
“I call it ‘screening anxiety’, this cancer could spread to your lungs and heaven bless your brain, my spleen and liver, which has so far been not exactly typical.”
In the UK and Australia, colon cancer has overtaken car accidents as one of the biggest killers of people aged 25 to 45, and Rebecca wants her symptoms to be widely publicized as breast cancer.
He said: “There was no blood in my poop, I wasn’t tired, nothing – people should be more aware of that – as the NHS ad a few years ago suggested was a warning sign – there seem to be two camps of people.
“People who don’t have symptoms are like me and the diagnosis hits them like a sledgehammer, or others who have symptoms mistaken for Chron’s disease or IBS.
“I made the mistake of thinking it was something that happens to the elderly. “I never thought it would happen to me, it hadn’t even occurred to me, so we need more awareness.”
Rebecca is currently undergoing treatment at Southend Hospital in Essex and can’t “praise enough” for her hard work and “speed” in making her diagnosis.
“They were amazing and so fast that less than two weeks had passed since an accident and it was an emergency to diagnose and treat suspected appendicitis.
“The day I called the GP I almost gave up, tried to spend two hours but luckily my mom insisted on staying on the line and the GP encouraged me to go to the hospital”.
“I think my life would have been very different now if I had taken a fitness test in my thirties.”
Source: Daily Mail
