Woman told she had ‘postnatal depression’ diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer

A mother of two prescribed antidepressants after complaining of fatigue was devastated when she learned she had stage four bowel cancer and had just nine months to live.

Helen Canning complained of anaemia and low energy for more than a year, but as a 37-year-old with two children under the age of five, her symptoms were put down to prolonged postnatal depression and work stress.

“At the end of the school day, I’d sit at my desk and lose half an hour of my time just sitting and staring,” the A-level science teacher from Suffolk said. “I was so tired. Then I would get even more stressed because I was getting behind on my work.”

She went to the GP because she was concerned about her symptoms. Despite being told her iron was low, she said she was never offered a blood test to investigate this further. As well as prescribing antidepressants, the GP referred her to a gynaecologist for an ultrasound scan on her left side in December 2020, but the scan did not detect anything.

But less than a year later in August 2021, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer after she was rushed into A&E with a “crippling, stabbing pain” and violent vomiting, the night before her ninth wedding anniversary. She was told she had advanced colorectal cancer, a primary tumour in the right side of her colon, with secondary growths on her ovaries, liver, and peritoneum.

Though Mrs Canning was given only nine months to live after her diagnosis, the mother of two leaned on her family for strength as she started chemotherapy. It has now been over two years and she continues to fight. Now she is determined to raise awareness of the common signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, and urges people to “know their own ‘normal’ and not be afraid to keep pushing for further testing and answers when doctors don’t”.

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Source: Independent, 22 October 2023