Iimmediately burst into tears (Picture: Charlotte Greaves)

I was alone and lying in a hospital bed when a consultant came into the room.

It was 2010 and I was 19. I had been experiencing bloody diarrhoea for three months.

That’s when I was told something I’ll never forget: ‘Prepare for the worst because your symptoms could be a sign of bowel cancer .’

While I understand they may have been trying to prepare me, this did little to comfort me. Instead, I immediately burst into tears.

I was terrified and didn’t want to die.

This all started five months earlier when I contracted food poisoning from uncooked chicken at a chain restaurant while in my final semester of first-year at university.

I’d experienced vomiting and diarrhoea ever since, which meant I’d spent almost every wakin

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