Kirsty shares her journey with Bowel Cancer for Bowel Cancer awareness month this June.

June is bowel cancer awareness month and right now I am very aware of just how how prevalent it is in Australia. This is because in August last year my world was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with Stage 3c bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer is the second most deadliest cancer in Australia and its now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in people aged 25-44.  But it still flies under the radar and people often are not getting diagnosed until it is too late. It is very treatable if it is caught early. The most important thing is to know your body and what is normal for you. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t wait. Go and see your GP.


Things to look out for are:

• Changes in your bowel habits; either loose or constipation
• Blood in your stools
• Abdominal pain, bloating or cramps
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unexplained tiredness or fatigue
• Low iron

The problem is many conditions can cause these symptoms, especially for a woman so a diagnosis can be delayed or put down to other things.

My diagnosis came after having blood in my stools. Thankfully I saw my GP quickly. I was referred immediately for blood tests, a stool test and a colonoscopy. Interestingly the bloods and stool test came back negative, but I felt like I knew something wasn’t right.

A 2 week wait for the colonoscopy felt like forever, but I was given the diagnosis of cancer immediately after.  Things happened quickly from there and 2 weeks later I had an anterior bowel resection to remove the tumour , resulting in the formation of a temporary ileostomy. An ileostomy is when part of the small bowel is brought through the abdominal wall via a surgically created opening called a stoma. The purpose is to evacuate the stool from the body into a bag via the ileum instead of the anus. This is to allow the part of the bowel that was operated on time to rest, recover and heal. The lymph nodes were also removed and tested and cancer was detected in 8 of them so 6 months of chemotherapy was required.

Thankfully for me the ileostomy was temporary, so after chemotherapy was completed and I had time to recover I was able to have this reversed.

I highly recommend seeing a Women's Health Physiotherapist for assessment of your pelvic floor during this time and prior to having a reversal, so that the pelvic floor muscles are functioning well and are as strong as possible prior to the surgery. I can honestly say I did the work on mine prior to surgery and I like to think that is why I am recovering so well and looking forward to being back in the clinic again soon!


Kirsty Tindal 
Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist
Womankind Physiotherapy