Liliana Mackowiak

People often ask me, how did you find out?

Well, I entered that unknown territory, which no one wants to pass through when I was 37. I was thinking that world was my oyster and I couldn’t believe that myself, healthy strong individual ,  is now being diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer… is this even possible?
My perception of that disease was associated with elderly gentleman, who neglected his checkups but I couldn’t be more wrong about it.

Bowel cancer sadly wreaks havoc amongst young people, more and more often! We seeing global alarming high numbers of gastrointestinal cancers affecting young generation, taking lives before we even had chance to live them.

I underwent a major emergency surgery, which was followed by intense chemotherapy combined with targeted therapy and I’m still receiving treatment because I’m on it for life. It’s not an easy journey, I could say that most probably I’ve experienced majority side effects listed on the drug labels and management of those it’s a full time job itself but even during hard moments… I take each day as a blessing and I’m grateful that I’m still getting to see my family.

Reflecting on my journey, I can say that society is heavily uneducated about bowel cancer. We avoid uncomfortable conversations. Medical professionals are not always seeing urgency of additional tests to rule out cancer diagnosis. We don’t talk enough about symptoms linked to this type of cancer. I certainly missed some of my early symptoms like back pain followed by a stomachache. And we certainly not stressing enough about the fact that early diagnosis of bowel cancer can lead to full recovery and save lives!