I was diagnosed in february 2019 with bowel cancer. I had 2 stage 4 inoperable tumours in my bowel which were filling my pelvic cavity, one was growing into the nerves at the bottom of my spine, and the cancer had also spread to my groin lymph nodes. My bowel had completely stopped working so I had to have a colostomy, this where they bring part of your intestine out through a hole in your abdomen and your waste comes out into a bag that you stick around the intestine (or stoma). I was told this would be temporary to get me through treatment. The idea was to shrink the tumours enough that they could hopefully surgically remove them. I went through an aggressive course of chemotherapy and radiation followed by some more chemotherapy, I also did a strict alkaline diet and lots of alternative/holistic healing too. The scans 3 months after treatment showed that we had exceeded all expectations and the tumours had almost gone which was an absolute miracle! I was put on further chemo for 3 months and we hoped I would get my NED result (no evidence of disease) and my colostomy reversal in the December 2019. Sadly the next scans showed that not only had my cancer relapsed further up my bowel but my gynae organs were now involved and the cancer was back in the groin nodes. I am back on another aggressive course of chemo, each time I receive two chemo drugs at once in a really long 6 hour infusion. I’m currently on cycle 2 of 6 but I may have to have more. The only way I stand a chance of surviving this disease now is to have a pretty horrific and life changing surgery called a pelvic exenteration they will remove my ovaries, Fallopian tubes, cervix, uterus, vagina (they reconstruct), rectum and anus (they close this over - non officially known as a ‘barbie butt’), they also need to take out some of my pelvic bone and a spinal nerve, which may effect how my left leg works but I hope not as I need to get back in the stratcave!! I am totally gutted about the surgery I have to have and how much it will change my quality of life, I will also never get my colostomy reversed now which causes me so much sadness but at least it gives me a chance to survive. With the surgery the odds are around 20% chance of making it to 5 years. Obviously I’m going to smash that statistic 💪!!