Story
Hi my name is Marie, I'm a 34 year old Midwife from Yorkshire. 2018 was a huge year for me! I became a mummy for the first time, I got engaged to my fantastic fiance Scott, we bought a house and then I was diagnosed with bowel cancer / cancer of the rectum. The two weeks following my diagnosis were the worst two weeks of my life. I had what felt like loads of blood test, an MRI and CT scan. Waiting for the results was torture, the days dragged and the nights were endless. I had so many thoughts and feelings, that my head constantly hurt, I cried so many tears. Not knowing what was going to happen and if the cancer was elsewhere was hellish. At the end of those long weeks, me and Scott went to the hospital for my results, the news was good, NO secondaries! We tried to be a positive as possible and "no secondaries" was what we wanted to hear. My full diagnosis was stage 3 cancer of the rectum. My treatment plan was for a short course of radiotherapy, followed by surgery to remove the tumor (low anterior resection) and ileostomy, followed by chemotherapy (treatment time tbc) - we are hoping the stoma surgery will be reversible. SMASH IT is my new moto and I want to share my strange new journey with you. It would also be great to raise symptom awareness and help expose some of the stigmas surrounding bowel cancer. Please follow my journey at #smashitmarie Lets smash this cancer together!