Jenny Duncan, 45, is sharing her battle with bowel cancer and the regret of hiding symptoms from her doctor out of embarrassment.
Her first signs appeared in 2019 during a vacation in Lanzarote. Back in the UK as a new head teacher, she blamed stomach pain and blood on toilet paper on stress. Jenny even took photos of the bleeding but stayed silent until her husband saw one and urged her to see a doctor. She was soon diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer. “I thought bowel cancer only happened to older men,” she admitted.
Her treatment began during COVID-19, leaving her to face chemotherapy and surgery mostly alone. Though her tumor disappeared, in 2022 doctors told her the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and was incurable. “I absolutely lost it. I kept saying, ‘I’m going to die,’” Jenny recalled.
Now living with stage 4 cancer, she undergoes scans and is “grateful for every day.” She urges others not to ignore warning signs like blood in the stool, abdominal pain, fatigue, or sudden weight loss.
