At 33, I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome – in fact I had colon cancer, but doctors missed it because they said I was ‘too young’
When she found herself desperately rushing to the loo, up to 10 times a day, Vicki Steyert knew something was wrong.
The pharmacy store manager from Wigan, Manchester, had never experienced anything like it—and, even more alarmingly, started seeing blood in the toilet.
But when the then-33-year-old went to her GP, tests came back all clear. She was reassured by her doctor that it was most likely to be irritable bowel syndrome—a digestive issue which, while unpleasant for sufferers, is not life-threatening.
Even when she went to see a private consultant—at this point seven weeks pregnant with her second child—Vicki was given the same answer.
‘He did blood and stool tests and they didn’t show anything, so he told me I likely had a mild inflammatory bowel disorder,’ she said.
‘I brought up bowel cancer to him—I had Googled it—and asked how he knew it wasn’t that. He told me I wouldn’t look the way that I do if I had it—I would have lost more weight and be jaundiced.
‘And above all, I kept being told, I was much too young for bowel cancer.’
But by the time Vicki returned to her GP—this time for recurrent urinary tract infections six weeks after she had given birth—a scan of her bladder picked up some abnormalities on her liver.
When mum-of-two Vicki Steyert went to her GP complaining of changes in her bowel habits, tests came back all clear – months later, she was told it was actually incurable bowel cancer
After a CT scan and colonoscopy, the mum-of-two was officially given the devastating news: she had bowel cancer that had now spread to her liver, littering it with lesions.
With two little boys at home—Alex, then four, and Charlie, just six weeks—Vicki was told her illness was incurable, and any treatment she received would be palliative.
Yet miraculously, four years later, she is now cancer free, thanks to a pioneering new transplant procedure that she was only the second in the country to receive.
‘I’m still not back to normal, but I’m feeling so much better,’ she said.
‘It just feels good to be able to think so much further ahead. For such a long time I was living for the next scan. Now I can think about what we’re doing for holiday next year.’
Once considered a disease of old age, bowel cancer cases in young people have skyrocketed in recent years—rising 52 per cent in 25- to 49-year-olds since the early 90s.
These so-called early-onset cases are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage, once the cancer has spread and is no longer treatable.
‘Bowel Babe’ Dame Deborah James was one well-known example, diagnosed with incurable colon cancer at just 35 and raising millions for charity in her final weeks in 2022.
Vicki, pictured with husband Rob and sons Alex and Charlie, was given a glimmer of hope in the midst of her treatment: a pioneering new surgery being trialled by doctors in Edinburgh
Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, or a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstruction. Some people also suffer from weight loss as a result of these symptoms
In Vicki’s case, she believes doctors dismissed her due to her age, as well as the fact that she didn’t have all the symptoms associated with bowel cancer.
‘Before I left the private consultant’s office, I asked him what I needed to look out for,’ she said.
‘He told me to come back as soon as possible if I had uncontrollable bleeding or persistent diarrhoea, but I never got either of those things.
‘In fact, the consultant was so confident that it wasn’t anything serious that he sent me away until I had the baby to do the colonoscopy, as he didn’t want to do anything to cause stress to my body.
‘I left feeling a little silly for even saying it out loud.’
Normally, the common stool symptoms associated with the disease are caused by the tumour pressing outwards and narrowing the gastrointestinal tract, often resulting in constipation, blockages and changes in the consistency and shape of stools, which can appear thin and pencil-like.
But the tumour in Vicki’s colon presented as a thickening of the colon wall, rather than a protruding mass.
Once diagnosed, due to the number of lesions on her liver, doctors originally declared her cancer inoperable.
But after starting on chemotherapy and a targeted treatment called panitumumab in August 2021, tiny cancer particles in her blood became almost indetectable in just six months—leaving her team at The Christie hospital in Manchester amazed.
Her liver, however, was still too riddled with tumours for them to remove the cancer entirely.
It was at this point that the mum-of-two was given a glimmer of hope: a pioneering new surgery being trialled by doctors in Norway.
‘I was told it was coming to the NHS soon and that if I stayed on chemotherapy for long enough, I could be eligible for it,’ Vicki said.
‘It became a waiting game—but it was something to hold onto.’
The surgery, which offers a liver transplant to patients with tumour-ravaged livers, is a lifeline for those with advanced bowel cancer that has spread to the liver and who have few other options.
To be eligible, patients must have had stable disease for at least two years and no remaining cancer in the bowel.
Made available on the NHS for the first time in summer 2024, Vicki was just the second person in the UK to undergo the procedure, carried out at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Now, nearly a year on, she is cancer-free.
‘In the cancer world, no one likes to use the word ‘cure’, but that’s what we hope this is,’ she said.
‘I have to take medication for the rest of my life—immunosuppressants so my body doesn’t reject the liver—and get scans every three months, but I’m so grateful for the amazing care I’ve received.’
Back at home, and planning a summer holiday abroad with her boys and husband Rob, Vicki hopes her story will help other cancer patients.
‘I wish I’d pushed more earlier on,’ she added. ‘You need to be your own advocate – always do your own research and ask questions about what’s possible.’
