Sarah was fit, healthy and living her dream life – until a terrifying episode led to soul-crushing cancer diagnosis at 23 that doctors never saw coming

A ‘fit and healthy’ woman has revealed how a terrifying episode of uncontrollable bleeding led to a shock diagnosis of a rare cancer typically seen in women three times her age. 

Sarah Lai was a 21-year-old university graduate working as an allied health assistant and preparing to begin her career when she first noticed something was wrong.

In February 2024, the Queensland woman experienced extremely heavy bleeding that became so severe she was rushed to the hospital.

But after waiting for four hours in a busy emergency department, her symptoms began to ease and she went home before being seen.

She later visited her GP, who prescribed tranexamic acid (TXA), commonly used for heavy menstrual periods or nosebleeds, to take whenever the bleeding worsened.

Sarah also underwent scans after her GP suspected her uterine lining may have thickened, which can cause heavy bleeding and blood clots – but the scans came back normal.

‘I kind of just brushed it off and forgot about it,’ she told the Daily Mail.

At the time, Sarah had no reason to believe she could be seriously unwell. She was young, active, and otherwise healthy. She also had polycystic ovary syndrome, known as PCOS, and assumed the abnormal bleeding could be connected to that.

But in August 2025, her period lasted 14 days.

‘I started to get a bit suspicious because I didn’t have any pain or cramping at all,’ she said.

Then, on day 15 of her period, the bleeding became impossible to control.

‘The bleeding got so bad that my oral medication didn’t work,’ Sarah said. ‘I was bleeding everywhere, there was blood all over the floor, there were blood clots the size of my fist coming out, and I just couldn’t control it.’

She returned to hospital, where doctors gave her a strong IV dose of medication to slow the bleeding, along with an oral synthetic progesterone tablet to calm it further.

The treatment worked, but emergency doctors told her to return to her GP for further scans and a referral to a gynaecologist to rule out anything suspicious.

Days later, a pelvic ultrasound showed alarming results.

‘My uterine lining was 19mm,’ Sarah said, while a healthy woman’s lining would usually be 2-4mm during their menstrual cycle.

Her GP was immediately concerned the thickened lining could be a sign of abnormal cells developing in the uterus.

‘She wrote an urgent referral to a bunch of gynaecologists,’ Sarah said.

One specialist contacted her quickly, and she was seen the following week. During that appointment, Sarah was reassured the odds were overwhelmingly in her favour.

‘She explained to me, because I’m quite healthy, aside from having PCOS, I’m not overweight, I’m quite active, and I’m 23, there was an extremely low chance, less than 1 per cent of me having cancer,’ Sarah said.

‘The worst case scenario was that I would have pre-cancer.’

To be safe, her doctor recommended a hysteroscopy, a short procedure done under general anaesthetic where a camera is passed into the uterus and tissue samples are taken.

Sarah underwent the procedure without complications and was told results would take three to four weeks.

Instead, she received a phone call just 10 days later asking her to come in urgently.

‘Someone from the practice called me and told me I needed to see the doctor ASAP in person, and I started panicking,’ she said.

Her appointment was booked for October 8.

On the day, her doctor texted and told her to bring a friend or support person.

‘It was terrifying. It was to the point where I couldn’t even eat my food in the morning, I was shaking. I had to get a friend to literally pick me up and send me to the hospital.’

When she walked into the consultation room, Sarah was told she had grade 2 endometrial adenocarcinoma, the most common type of endometrial cancer.

‘Living out my dream life’ 

‘At just 23, I became one of the youngest in Australia ever diagnosed with something that not even my specialists were ready for,’ she said.

‘As a young person, I was preparing for the joys of growing up and living out my dream life but instead cancer was the spanner thrown in the works. Getting cancer at such a young age affected my relationships, plans and how I saw the world.’

Staging was not immediately possible because endometrial cancer is usually staged after a hysterectomy.

But at just 23, Sarah was not ready to make that decision.

‘I didn’t know whether I wanted to be a parent or not,’ she said. ‘There’s a lot of work with a hysterectomy, especially at a young age.’

Instead, doctors organised a CT scan and MRI to estimate how far the cancer had spread.

After the appointment, Sarah went home in shock.

‘I went home in complete denial,’ she said. ‘I didn’t even cry at that appointment. A part of me was very glad that I finally had answers, but I was also in denial that I had cancer.’

Later that night, reality hit.

‘I lay down, and that’s when it hit me. I cried all night, and my whole family was in denial as well.’

‘People with endometrial cancer are three times my age’

Her parents, brother, and partner rallied around her, but Sarah said the diagnosis felt profoundly lonely.

‘According to my doctor, I was the second youngest she’s ever had to diagnose with this cancer. I felt very isolated. I still do feel quite isolated,’ she said.

‘The whole time I had cancer, I felt alone, because everyone else who has this cancer is really old, three times my age. I couldn’t relate to anyone.’

While waiting to see other specialists, Sarah underwent further imaging. She also had a Mirena IUD inserted during her first hysteroscopy, which her doctors hoped could help thin the uterine lining if the cancer was caught early enough.

When Sarah finally met her gynae-oncologist, she was told the scans suggested the cancer was stage 1.

Her specialist recommended fertility treatment discussions and then another hysteroscopy three months later to see how the cancer cells were responding.

That second procedure took place in January, and the results were extraordinary.

‘My body completely responded to treatment, and I had no cancer anymore,’ Sarah said.

On January 30, her doctor called to tell her there was no evidence of disease.

‘My doctor just gave me a phone call, and I was surprised, but I think I knew. I felt really calm in the lead up to the call,’ Sarah said.

Because of her response, Sarah did not need the hysterectomy, chemotherapy, or radiation she had feared.

‘It was a very big surprise to all of us that my cancer completely disappeared in three months,’ she said.

While the news was overwhelmingly positive, recovery brought its own emotional confusion.

‘I feel like I went through so many identity changes. At first, I had to adjust to having cancer, and now I have to adjust again, being a survivor,’ Sarah said.

‘I was very confused, I was very grateful, I was sad at the same time that I’d be getting less support from everyone, now that I’m cancer-free.’

Her family remained her strongest source of support throughout the ordeal.

‘My parents and my brother, they are the best, honestly,’ she said.

‘My parents provided all the financial support. They didn’t want me to worry about all the medical bills.’

Her brother helped more around the house, while her mother made sure she could rest on difficult days.

But Sarah said cancer also changed some friendships.

‘Those friends that I thought were my close friends, they kind of just disappeared,’ she said.

After documenting her diagnosis online, Sarah found unexpected support from strangers and built what she described as a ‘mini online community’.

‘My outlook on the world has changed’ 

She later told her wider circle she had cancer only after learning she was in remission.

The experience has changed how she sees her body, work and future.

‘My outlook on the world has changed permanently. I’m much slower than usual. I look fine, I’m quite functional, I can go to work full-time, but I feel like I’m slowing down.’

She has become more conscious of eating whole foods, reducing processed foods, and being careful with alcohol.

More than anything, she said cancer forced her to confront mortality at an age when most people are just beginning adult life.

‘Having cancer has made me face my own mortality in a way that no one else has to,’ she said. ‘I had to make a lot of decisions that no other 23-year-old had to make.’

She also faced uncomfortable misconceptions.

‘People would ask why I’m not bald, or, “Oh, you look great for having cancer”. I got that a lot,’ she said.

Some relatives commented on her weight loss without understanding it was caused by stress and illness – while others sent unsolicited medical advice.

‘I work in healthcare, I can make my own informed decisions,’ Sarah said.

Now, as both a healthcare worker and cancer survivor, Sarah believes the experience has changed the way she relates to patients.

‘I can understand my patients on another level now, because I had cancer, I was in the hospital bed too, just like them.’

‘Never ignore signs’ 

Sarah had no genetic mutations and no family history of endometrial cancer.

‘The cause of my cancer remains unknown. I’m a healthy individual, and I somehow got cancer. No cause whatsoever, just a spontaneous mutation,’ she said.

‘My kind of cancer can take years to grow. I potentially had it for even a whole year, or more than that, and I didn’t realise until the symptoms got worse.’

Her message to other young women is simple: do not dismiss abnormal bleeding, even if you are young, fit, and otherwise well.