Doctors dismissed 25-year-old’s symptoms as ‘women’s problems’… then she had to have 70 per cent of her stomach removed
Bella Bayliss, 25, first went to the A&E department at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in January 2019 complaining of abdominal pain, breathlessness and extreme bloating, only to be dismissed and sent home.
She said: ‘I was getting really breathless doing normal activities, I was really pale, I had constant stomach pains.
‘I went to hospital because I was extremely anaemic, they sent me home and blamed it on women’s problems. I knew it wasn’t that.
‘I had lost my appetite completely, my legs were going numb, [I had] tingly hands, tingly legs.
‘I used to work at a supermarket and I was waking up quite early in the morning and I blamed it on that.’
Unconvinced by what the doctors told her, and still suffering from the same debilitating symptoms, the then 19-year-old returned to the same hospital in November of that year and demanded tests to determine the root cause of her symptoms.
The doctors performed an endoscopy, which is when a thin flexible tube with a camera is inserted into through the throat to view the upper digestive system.
Bella Bayliss was told she had ‘women’s problems’ – actually it was a rare stomach cancer
GIST affects 10-15 people per million annually which makes up one to two percent of all gastrointestinal cancers.
Medics discovered that Miss Bayliss had a 6cm gastrointestinal tumour (GIST) in her stomach.
Gastrointestinal stromal tumors affects 10-15 people per million annually which makes up one to two percent of gastrointestinal cancers.
Symptoms can present as feelings of fullness, abdominal pain, chest pain and nausea, all symptoms experienced by Miss Bayliss.
GIST tumours are very uncommon and are caused by a sarcoma, a type of cancer that begins in the bone or soft tissue, developing in the digestive system.
They don’t typically react to standard chemotherapy, meaning patients need to undergo major surgery to remove the cancerous mass.
In Miss Bayliss’ case, surgeons also had to remove 70 per cent of her stomach, which she thinks could have been avoided if her initial concerns had been taken seriously.
She said: ‘I went home and a few months later I went back because I was anaemic again and I had an endoscopy and that’s when they found the tumour in my stomach.
‘If they hadn’t have left me for so long I wouldn’t have had to have that much of my stomach removed because the tumour got bigger within that time.
An endoscopy revealed a 6cm tumour in her stomach
Miss Bayliss was left with a significant scar after having her tumour removed
‘It’s a very complex type of cancer, what I have is so rare it doesn’t react to standard chemotherapy so my tumour got sent off for testing and it got back with 85 per cent cancer.’
The surgery, which was successful, has affected what foods she can eat and drink, and it makes spending time with her friends difficult.
‘I can’t eat a lot anymore, I just try to have small meals throughout the day. I get scared to have food with my friends or have a drink sometimes,’ she said.
‘I have a massive scar from my surgery, it’s had an impact on my confidence. I would try and hide it for a while and now it’s something I’m actually very proud of.’
Unfortunately for Miss Bayliss, in autumn 2025 a routine scan revealed that the cancer had returned and there were two new tumours on her liver.
Miss Bayliss said: ‘I had a scan at the end of September thinking “it’s just another scan”.
‘They said they found two shadows on my liver and I just instantly knew it was that. I had a phone call not long after saying it was my cancer and it had come back.
‘At first I was shocked because after five years you think it’s a part of your life you can put behind you.
‘I was very shocked, me and my mum and dad were devastated. This time it felt different, I think you worry when it comes back.
‘I know what to expect, I’m extremely overwhelmed and tired.
‘They are currently trying to find medication that works, the only way to cure my cancer is surgery.’
A Gloucestershire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: ‘We are very sorry to hear that Miss Bayliss’s cancer has returned, and we understand how distressing this must be for her and her family. We are also sorry about the experience she had with her care in 2019 and 2020.
‘We are sorry that it was not detected when she was first seen and have used her experience to reinforce the importance of appropriate investigation in similar situations.’
