Jarred’s Story

My name is Jarred and I’m 43, I was recently diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer.

My symptoms started back in 2019 when I started to notice my stools were becoming not as firm, but I thought this was just my diet.

Fast forward to July 2022, I noticed a little bit of blood on the toilet paper. At the time I thought nothing of it as it wouldn’t happen again until a few weeks later – I just thought it was due to a hard stool.

In September I started to notice red blood in my stools occasionally, I was going to the toilet up to 3 times a day plus had a lot of wind.

Mid-November this red mucus started to appear when I’d feel the need to go, and it’d just be this mucus in the toilet and a lot of abdominal cramping. I was also losing weight without trying to (10kg throughout 2022). At this point, alarm bells were starting to ring.

I made an appointment with my doctor and was told it was most likely constipation or haemorrhoids and that the bleeding should stop. Seven days on and I was having more blood and mucus.

I kept sending emails to my doctor advising that things were getting worse and managed to get a colonoscopy on the 5^th of January 2023. This resulted in seeing what I did not want to see, two tumours 5cm and 3cm in the lower sigmoid region – I was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer.

I was booked for surgery on January 31^st, where they removed 6-8 inches of my bowel and re-sectioned it, avoiding an ileostomy bag. The two lymph nodes attached to the bowel were tested and came back negative, as the tumours had only grown halfway into the bowel wall and hadn’t reached the lymph nodes.

So, I’m pleased to say that I’m cancer free. I do have a 4mm node in one of my lungs however, which I am going to get a CT scan in 3-6 months to check it hasn’t changed.

So please, any of you that are reading this, please, please keep your eye on your poo… It just may save your life! I should have seen my doctor about it a long time ago, but I was naive and thought it was nothing. I could have saved myself from major surgery and the pain that I’m in at the moment recovering if I’d just listened to my instincts before I started showing signs. So please look after yourselves and listen to your body.

Thank you to my wife Leah who has been right behind me every step of the way and to every appointment. My wife’s mum passed away of bowel cancer 12 years ago the very same day I was diagnosed.

I would also like to thank the professional medical team at Dunedin Hospital, my doctor, and all the specialists involved that acted as quickly as they did and saved my life – thank you. My outlook on life has changed a lot and I’m so very grateful for every day now.