A mum-of-five has shared her journey through cancer treatment, which changed her life overnight. 41-year-old Lindsey Ellis from Y Bala in Gwynedd thought she was suffering with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and long Covid before she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2022.
Colorectal cancer is also known as bowel cancer and affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum. It’s one of the most common types of cancer in the UK, according to the NHS.
Speaking to WalesOnline, Lindsey hopes that by sharing her story it will encourage others who may be experiencing similar symptoms to go to their doctor. For years, Lindsey said that she suffered with symptoms she thought was irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
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Rather than going to a doctor with her symptoms however, Lindsey explained that she took it upon herself to alleviate the symptoms. She said: “I was suffering with what I thought was irritable bowel syndrome for a couple of years. Whenever I was eating carbs – potatoes, pasta, chips, I felt like I would have a stomach ache and I was bloated.
“I didn’t go to the doctor because when I was talking to my friends, I found out that they had the same symptoms. We would talk about going on gluten-free diets and that did seem to help things and I could manage the symptoms by doing those sorts of things.
“In a way, it made me think: ‘Yes, it must be that then if I can manage it’. It’s strange, they talk about the general symptoms of bowel cancer, one being the blood in the stool, but I wouldn’t get anything like that. I just thought I had IBS.”
But when Lindsey was expecting her fifth child – her little girl Doti who was born in October 2021, her symptoms became worse. For the latest health news, sign up to our newsletter here.
She said: “I had four children before Doti, I could carry on until the end and I was overdue with the four of them. But when I was carrying her, I had reached 35 weeks and I felt like I could never reach full term with her.
“I felt really tired and I felt like something was pressing. I wasn’t feeling right at all. I was talking to Dion, my partner, and I said: ‘Perhaps I’m just too old to be expecting’, because I was 39 at the time. I was struggling.”
Doti was born at 36 weeks old. Soon after her birth, Lindsey and the whole family contracted Covid-19. And although the family recovered from the virus, Lindsey said she began experiencing symptoms of long Covid. She said: “The time after her birth was really difficult, Doti was only a week old.
“But then after that, I was really excited and we were gradually getting out of lockdown as well. I was excited to take her on walks and seeing my friends who had also had a baby around the same time. But then, I felt like I didn’t have the energy, which was strange because I am a person that enjoys walking a lot and going running a lot. But I just felt like I didn’t have the energy to do anything.”
By January 2022, Lindsey said she felt “like something wasn’t right” and went to the doctor, where she was told she may have developed an infection after her daughter’s birth and was given antibiotics. Lindsey said that she did feel better in the days that followed.
But two months later, her symptoms began to get progressively worse to the point where she would have to lie down after eating a bowl of cereal in the morning as her stomach aches were so painfully. Eventually, Lindsey said she would pass out from the pain and remained in her bed.
She said: “By March, I was crying to my partner and saying: ‘I just don’t know what’s going on with me, I can’t do anything’. He told me I needed to go to the doctor. I had come to the point where I just didn’t know what was going on, where I couldn’t control my symptoms and also that any remedies I had for these symptoms just didn’t work.”
Lindsey received a blood test in April, but her results came back clear. A week later and Lindsey’s health took a turn for the worst. “I couldn’t go to the toilet,” she explained. “I would have the urge to go to the toilet but there was something stopping it.
“I went to the doctor, they gave me laxatives and other medication to help me, but nothing was working. It came to the point where I hadn’t been to the toilet and my stomach was big. I was in so much pain and at times it felt like it was worse than the pain I had experienced during childbirth. By the Sunday, I was starting to pass out because I was in so much pain and I would stay in my bed.”
The next day, Lindsey’s partner Dion decided to take her to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where a gastro surgeon who was on duty that night took an interest in her case. Lindsey received an ultrasound and various other tests. By the next morning, she was told that they had detected a tumour in her body and that they would have to operate on her that afternoon.
“A part of me was still hopeful that it wasn’t cancerous,” she said. “Although there was a chance it wasn’t, they told me to prepare for the worst. It was a shock, but also, I had started expecting for the worst anyway.” She added: “They told me that due to the fact that the tumour was in the rectum, it meant that nothing could pass.
“They were concerned that the bowel would rupture as it hadn’t been emptied in 14 days. The surgeon explained that they would be unable to remove the tumour – it was inoperable as it was, but they said they would have to get rid of the blockage and give me a stoma bag.
“I was told that the surgeon had cleared his diary for that afternoon so he could operate on me, they were very concerned that my bowel would rupture, which could be deadly. The next thing I knew was the nurse coming in with a pen and I was telling her where the hole for the stoma bag could go. Everything was happening so quickly. They said that it was extremely lucky that I had gone in that afternoon to get the stoma, an hour later, it could have ruptured.”
Lindsey’s operation for a temporary stoma bag was successful. A day later, an MRI scan detected that the tumour was cancerous and that it had spread to her lymph nodes and uterus. In the months that followed, Lindsey received 30 sessions of radiotherapy, which was then followed by six cycles of chemotherapy.
By December, the doctors told Lindsey that the treatment had resulted in a “complete response”, which meant that the cancer and all signs of it had disappeared. She then underwent a colonoscopy and an en bloc hysterectomy, which saw the removal of her uterus and a stoma reversal.
In January 2023, Lindsey received further chemotherapy sessions as cancerous cells were yet again found in her body. But since then, the mum-of-five has had no evidence of the disease and receives regular check-ups, blood tests and scans.
Despite receiving the “amazing” news about her recovery, Lindsey said that the illness has had a lasting effect on her day-to-day life, both physically and mentally. “When I wake up, I experience pins and needles in my feet, which I’ve had since chemotherapy,” she explained. “They call it neuropathy. I can’t feel my feet, but within 50 minutes the feeling comes back.
“I also have to be very careful that I know where the toilets are whenever I go somewhere. It does make me anxious in some situations. If I drink alcohol or too much coffee, I have to be careful. Also, I don’t know what is normal anymore in regards to my bowel movements, and that makes me anxious. If I have three to four days of it being in one certain way then I start to worry that it is back.”
But the experience has also taught Lindsey the fragility of life. “Nothing prepares you when you are facing the prospect of dying,” she said. “If it was just me and I had no family, I wouldn’t have anyone to worry about. I was just terrified of leaving my children.
“And when you have been through a year of that, holding on to that hope that the treatment will work and you will make it to the other side, it does change you. I would tell myself continuously: ‘when I’ll get better, I’m not going to worry about this or worry about that’. When you are in the middle of it, you think to yourself all the minor things I used to worry about, they were nothing.
“For example, I used to worry about keeping the house tidy, I would spend my Saturday mornings cleaning the house and telling the children to go out and do something. Now, I wake up in the morning and I tell the children we are going to a walk near the lake or going out for the day. The housework can wait.
“I don’t worry the same way anymore, if I don’t want to do something I am more willing to say no now. I have a can do attitude – if I want to do something I will do it, as long as my bank balance can keep up with it. It’s made me realise how my family and friends have been so supportive. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Lindsey hopes that her experience will encourage others to speak openly about their health. In recent years, discussion around bowel habits, knowing the symptoms of bowel cancer and the need to speak to your doctor when you have concerns has come into focus, namely thanks to the work of people like the late writer and journalist, Deborah James.
According to Bowel Cancer UK, since Deborah James’ death in June 2022, the charity has seen an increase in the number people waiting for bowel investigations. According to Lindsey, the conversation around bowel habits is “getting better”, but she hopes that more people will advocate for their health when they feel that something is not right.
“I think the conversations are getting better,” she said. “The reason I didn’t go to the doctor in the first place was because I didn’t want to discuss bowels and all of that, we have this idea that it’s all a bit disgusting. I thought to myself: ‘I don’t want to do that, I’ll sort it out myself’.
“But clearly it would have been much better had I gone to the doctors right from the very start. There are so many causes and symptoms of bowel cancer. Even if you think you have IBS, it is worth going to the doctor just to get that confirmation and the help you need.”
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
