A woman who was diagnosed with bowel cancer now wants you to know the unusual symptoms she experienced.
Ellie Wilcock began noticing that something wasn’t quite right with her body in 2021, and initially waved away her own worries.
Believing it was a urinary tract infection, Wilcock thought that the sharp pains on one side of her abdomen could easily be fixed.
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However, it turned out that the young woman was actually experiencing a sneaky symptom of cancer.
According to Bowel Cancer UK, around 44,000 people in the UK each year are diagnosed with the cancer, and almost 17,000 pass away from it.
Even though you might think that it only happens to those who are 50 and over, it’s actually becoming more common for younger people to develop bowel cancer, similar to pancreatic or colon cancer.
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The then 25-year-old from Peterborough was ultimately diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, meaning that it had spread to other areas of the body.
Now, she wants people to know what to look out for.
In a TikTok video, she warned of the four early warning signs that she experienced before she was diagnosed.
She explained that the pain was the first sign, and it surprised her.
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She said: “It [the pain] was in my left hand side.
“It was because the tumour was obstructing my large bowel.
“I thought it was more like urinary pain...doctors thought it was a UTI.”
Then, in another video, she shared how doctors believed she was suffering from an ovarian cyst.
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Wilcock also experienced other symptoms that are more in line with other people who have bowel cancer.
She shared that she noticed she was constipated, and then would have diarrhoea.
She said: “For me, it was a constant change between the two but it just wasn't normal for me.”
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Her third symptom was being extremely tired.
“And fatigue. I would come home from work and just want to lie down and go to bed,” she revealed. “I was really tired, I was really fatigued. Even sat at my desk, I was falling asleep I was so tired.”
The last thing that really stood out to her was blood in her stool.
Wilcock said in her clip: “At the time, I didn't think I had this, but on reflection, I did and just didn't notice it.
“This could be a range of colours, it could be bright red or a dark red.
“But anything that isn't normal for you and you've noticed consistent blood in your poo then get it checked out.
“It is nothing to be embarrassed about. The sooner you look at it, the sooner you get it out the way.”
She first visited the doctors about her pain in April 2022, and when her test results for a UTI were negative, blood tests found that there was inflammation somewhere in her body.
After having an ultrasound which didn’t find an ovarian cyst, she had to seek emergency help through A & E when the pain got worse.
That’s when a biopsy was conducted, and revealed her awful diagnosis.
They concluded that it had spread to her liver, ovaries, and the peritoneum, which is the membrane that holds the organs in the abdomen.
Wilcock had to have multiple surgeries to remove her cancer as well as chemotherapy.
In August 2022, it was confirmed that she no longer had cancer.
Britt Jones