Gemma Farquhar

Having the guts to deal with bad shit Gemma Farquhar

At 35 with two young children aged 4 and 6 - Bowel Cancer was the last thing on the doctors mind but I knew something wasn't right when I began vomiting after eating. The doctor initially put it down to a 'tummy bug' and then 'digestion issues' as I have no family history of the illness and my age was not of concern.



A couple of months later I found myself having emergency surgery on my bowel. I then found out I had Stage 3c Bowel Cancer. Shortly thereafter, this was restaged to stage 4 as I had a metastasis in my ovary which was not previously discovered.



All this was happening when COVID-19 was in full swing.



Had I realised that Bowel Cancer was not an old persons disease and there was more awareness then I may have got checked earlier, I may have questioned things that were happening - maybe not, I will never know but my objective is to use my experience and learnings to create awareness for young bowel cancer sufferers.



This is my very personal account which will hopefully assist anyone newly diagnosed, family members, people recovering from surgery or undergoing chemotherapy and knowing they are not alone.