A young woman has told how an 18-month ordeal of constipation, vomiting and loss of appetite turned out to be advanced bowel cancer – leaving her fighting for her life before the age of 30. 

Charlotte Rutherford, 32, who lives in Bristol, was just 26 and living in Australia when she was diagnosed with the disease. 

She was often unable to eat and would sometimes vomit for hours after meals, causing dramatic weight loss. 

Despite their severity, her symptoms came and went – making it harder to recognise the seriousness of her condition. 

It wasn’t until they became constant that she was rushed to hospital as an emergency and doctors told her that she was just 48 hours away from dying.

Recalling her arrival at the hospital, Ms Rutherford said: ‘I was so constipated. But all I can remember is the severe nausea, because, essentially, I was so blocked up and had been for a long time, it was kind of poisoning me.’

After being admitted into hospital, Ms Rutherford underwent a CT scan which revealed a major obstruction in her bowel that required urgent surgery.

It was then that the doctors asked Ms Rutherford if she had a history of bowel cancer in her family.

 Charlotte Rutherford battled cancer twice before the age of 30

‘I said: ‘I don’t have cancer, do I?’. And they were like: ‘We don’t know yet, but we’ll find out’,’ she recalled.

Such was their concern that, within 24 hours of arriving at the hospital, Ms Rutherford was under the knife so that the obstruction could be removed for biopsy.

Within a week, the devastating results had come back: Ms Rutherford had advanced bowel cancer which doctors believed may have been developing since she was just 21.

With her life tipped upside down, she was diagnosed with the stage 3B disease because it had spread to her lymph nodes.

The large tumour and the affected lymph nodes were removed during surgery, but she required 12 weeks of preventative chemotherapy administered via drip and oral tablets to ensure there was no cancer remaining.

After completed the programme in April 2021, Ms Rutherford was told she was in remission. 

She returned to the UK hoping to rebuild her life and, for a time, things felt normal again. Regular scans showed no signs of cancer, and by early 2023 she felt ‘so fit and so healthy’.

But just nine days after a routine scan in February 2023 – which she had gone into feeling confident – her world was turned upside down once more.

Ms Rutherford was 26 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer

The tumour obstructed her colon and left her unable to eat, causing her to vomit for three hours after mealtimes

‘They said, ‘Your surgeon would like to see you next week’… I was like, I’ve never been called in before, so that can’t be good news,’ Ms Rutherford explained.

Doctors confirmed the cancer had returned – this time in her lung – marking her second diagnosis before turning 30. The disease was now stage 4, having spread from its original location in the bowel.

She faced more chemotherapy – but feared it could leave her unable to have children, as the drugs can shut down the ovaries. 

Ms Rutherford said: ‘We spoke about treatment options, and normally, the NHS will say that anyone who’s had a recurrence has to have another round of chemo. But I was 29 at the time, and fertility was a really big factor.

‘I essentially had to weigh up whether it meant more to me to not have chemo and protect my fertility, or have chemo and reduce my chance of the cancer coming back.’

As the tumour was small, however, Ms Rutherford was able to have it removed through keyhole surgery in April 2023. 

After returning to the UK she discovered the cancer had metastasised to her lungs 

She was on bed rest for two weeks, and ‘after that, it was a case of really slowly and gradually building up my fitness again’ before being told she was in remission again in August 2023.

Though she is now looking forward to the future, the experience has taken an emotional toll on Ms Rutherford.

She said: ‘Because I was so young, you’re around an age group where people are progressing with other areas of their life, like buying houses and work and stuff. 

‘You just feel so behind where everyone else is, for something that is just so out of your control.’

Now working for a cancer charity, she is determined to raise awareness that bowel cancer – which kills around 17,700 people in the UK each year – can also affect young people. 

The NHS says symptoms can include changes in bowel habits – such as persistent diarrhoea, looser stools or constipation – as well as blood in the stool or bleeding from the bottom. 

Other warning signs include stomach pain, a lump in the abdomen, bloating or unexplained weight loss. 

While older people are most at risk of the disease, statistics from Bowel Cancer UK show that more than 2,500 people under the age of 50 are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK.

Ms Rutherford wants to make youngsters aware that the can also develop the disease. 

She said. ‘There isn’t quite that awareness still that this can happen to young people.

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‘I think that just raising awareness of the symptoms and making sure people have the confidence to get checked if something doesn’t feel right… To not have that immediate thought of: ‘You’re too young to have bowel cancer’ is important.’

This Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Bowel Cancer UK and pharmaceutical firm Takeda UK are spotlighting their Stage4You campaign which has been created to address the real challenges and unmet needs of people living with stage 4 bowel cancer.

For Ms Rutherford, Stage4You has been valuable as it ‘acknowledges the mental toll of what we’re going through, and gives us that acknowledgement to be able to just take some time, and to see that life doesn’t just go on as normal sometimes’.

She said: ‘I think my whole perspective on life changed (after cancer). I say yes to more things. I make sure that all of the time I have is spent doing things that I actually want to do.

‘You realise that, really, things can change so quickly – so don’t sweat the small stuff – live life how you want to live.’