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Zu Rafalat, 38, from North London, knew something was wrong. So why wouldn’t doctors listen to her?

Setting my rucksack down, I took a deep breath.

‘Home at last,’ I smiled. Taking in the familiar surroundings of my house, I was a far cry from where I’d been 48 hours earlier – diving with sharks in Costa Rica!

It was January last year, and I’d just returned from an epic holiday. A risk taker, I’d loved getting close to sharks in the warm sea, spending my time on small boats, and getting to know the locals. Now, it was back to reality, and the next day, I was due back at work as the managing director of a retail consultancy.

I’ll just get unpacked and then get dinner on , I thought. But as I leaned over to pick up my bag, I suddenly had a sharp pain in my stomach.

‘Unpacking will have to wait,’ I said to myself, dashing to the loo.

I figured I’d caught a travel bug, thought it would pass in a day.

That night, though, I tossed and turned in bed, writhing in pain.

And over the next few days, I was constantly constipated with a niggling pain in my abdomen.

I went back to work, but I was feeling tired all the time, which was unlike me.

Going to my GP a few days later, I was told it was just IBS. That can’t be right, I thought. I’d never had IBS before, had never had any problems with food. And as the pain in my stomach continued, I went back to the doctor’s surgery, seeing a different GP every week.

And each time, I was told the same thing – it was IBS.

Even after a trip to A&E when the pain became too intense, I was told it was just indi estion. Fed up

REAL LIFE

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Cancer won’t stop me!

My body was breaking down with being fobbed off, on 21 February, I saw a private GP. And finally, someone was listening to me.

As soon as I explained my symptoms, she referred me to a gastro specialist.

‘It could be a problem with your aries,’ she said. That day, I went to the London linic in Marylebone for a scan. My GP was right – the ollowing day, specialists told me hey’d found a mass on my ovary. I sat there in silence as the octor spoke to me – a strange feeling of dread washing over me. But, never one to take things ying down, I jumped into action. ‘What do we do now?’ I asked. The following day, I was back at the hospital for a colonoscopy. And it turns out, the mass on my ovary had been caused by bowel cancer.

‘There’s a tumour in your bowel which has spread to your ovaries,’ my consultant said.

My mind raced – I’d always been so active and healthy – how could I have cancer? I knew of other people who’d had cancer before, and most of them had had chemotherapy before undergoing surgery.

But that’s not what I wanted. ‘I just want this tumour out of me,’ I told my consultant. ‘I want surgery now.’ ‘It will mean having a full hysterectomy,’ he warned. ‘You won’t ever have children.’

To be honest, I’d not really decided whether I’d wanted kids or not, but this just made the decision for me.

‘That’s fine,’ I said. ‘I just want it out.’ Thankfully, he agreed to go ahead, and just two weeks later, I was back for my surgery.

Over nine hours, surgeons performed a full hysterectomy, where my womb, ovaries and fallopian tubes were removed.

They also removed my spleen, chopped off bits of my bowel, and cut out part of my liver, diaphragm and peritoneum.

Waking up in the ICU, I

realised that I’d been fitted with a colostomy bag. Even then, I tried to be positive bout it. It’s not ideal, I ght. But it’s better e alternative. ly, the surgery had been a success, and nine days later, I was sent home to recover.

And, a month later, scans showed that the cancer was gone.

To be on the safe side, my doctor wanted to continue with chemo. ‘To kill any remaining cancer cells we may have missed,’ he said. So, in April, I had my first round. I felt strong and healthy, and with my tumours now gone, I thought chemo would be a walk in the park. How wrong I was. Over the next few weeks, I suffered with terrible nausea, developed horrible rashes and sores across my body, and my digestive system was being destroyed. Worried, my oncologist ran tests, and it turned out I had something called DPD deficiency.

DPD is an enzyme that breaks down the toxic substance in chemotherapy drugs – and without it, it meant my body wasn’t doing this.

The chemo was destroying me. To make matters worse, a scan in July revealed that my cancer was back – there was now a tumour in my remaining peritoneum. It was tough to take in. By my seventh round of chemo in Treatment is tough Taking it one day at a time

October, my body stopped absorbing water, and I had to be hospitalised.

‘It’s time to stop the chemo,’ my oncologist said. ‘At this rate, it’s going to kill you faster than the cancer.’

I was relieved, of course, and instantly felt better.

But that didn’t change the fact that after all that, I still had cancer.

I started immunotherapy in December, which I’ll be on for the foreseeable future. Living with cancer is just something you have to get used to.

It’s like having diabetes – life will be different, of course, but I look at it like having a condition, rather than something that’s going to kill me.

Before I got ill, bowel cancer had never even been on my radar, especially at my age.

Living with cancer makes you think about things differently.

I used to go through life thinking nothing bad could happen to me. But it did. I’ve since been in touch with the charity Bowel Cancer UK.

I was surprised how many young people are living with the disease, many of them terminal because they were diagnosed too late.

My advice would be to get checked out at the first sign of anything, no matter your age.

And keep pushing for a diagnosis. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but if I hadn’t pushed my doctors, this could be a very different story.

We all have to die one day, but I try not to think about that. I just take it one day at a time.

Brew Together and support Bowel Cancer UK this April during Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. It’s really simple and everyone can get involved – gather your friends, family or colleagues, put the kettle on and make a donation to the charity. The money raised from your Brew Together fundraiser will help stop people dying of bowel cancer by funding vital services and lifesaving research. Sign up today at www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/ brewtogether