A MUM died just two weeks after being diagnosed with a common cancer after feeling too embarrassed to talk about her symptoms.
Kasia Pietrzak, 43, admits that she is, to this day, still “trying to come to terms” with her mum Krystyna’s sudden death from bowel cancer.
Krystyna was diagnosed with the disease back in 2022 – by which time it was too late to undergo lifesaving treatment.
“I’m still trying to come to terms with what happened, and the fact she didn’t want to talk about her symptoms before it was too late for us to react and help,” Kasia told the Glasgow Times.
Bowel cancer is now the third most common cancer in Britain, with 41,596 Brits diagnosed in 2021.
It is the UK’s second deadliest cancer, claiming 16,000 lives each year.
It is very treatable and curable if diagnosed early, with research showing that more than nine in 10 people survive when it is diagnosed at the earliest stage.
However, this drops significantly when diagnosed at the latest stage.
Two years after her mum’s death, Kasia is channelling her grief by taking part in Bowel Cancer UK’s annual Swim15 challenge to help raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms.
The challenge will see her swim 15km throughout August and raise money for the charity, in memory of her late mum.
She hopes to raise awareness of the bowel cancer screening programme “so people like me know how important it is to complete the test so that the disease can be caught at an early stage”.
The Sun’s No Time 2 Lose campaign, spearheaded by Sun Writer Dame Deborah James, called for earlier testing and treatments to improve survival rates in Britain.
Public awareness is on the up thanks to campaigners like Dame Debs, who died from the disease in June 2022 at just 40 years old.
BBC presenter George Alagiah died earlier this year at the age of 67 – nine years after he was diagnosed with the disease.
A recent study suggested that diet could be a main driver of the disease – especially in young people.
BOWEL cancer is the fourth most common form of the disease in the UK - but the second deadliest, claiming around 16,000 lives a year.
Yet it can be cured if it’s diagnosed early.
Fewer than one in ten people survive bowel cancer if it’s picked up at stage 4, but detected at stage 1 – before it’s spread – and more than nine in ten patients will live five years or longer.
There are two ways to ensure early diagnosis, screening and awareness of the symptoms.
Brits have been subjected to a postcode lottery when it comes to bowel cancer screening, with tests sent out in Scotland from 50, while people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have to wait until they are 60.
That’s why The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign, calling on the Government to lower the screening age, to save thousands of lives a year.
In summer 2018 The Sun and its readers secured a huge win with the Health Minister at the time, Matt Hancock, agreeing to start screening at 50, however, this is yet to be widely rolled out.
While screening is an important part of early diagnosis, so is knowing the symptoms and acting if you spot the signs.
The five red-flag symptoms are:
If you’re worried, don’t be embarrassed and speak to your GP – doctors see and deal with bowel problems all the time
