00:02It's been four years since Georgie's life changed overnight.
00:06I was 30 years old and I woke up from that colonoscopy and they told me that they had found
00:11something extremely nasty, most likely cancer.
00:14She still vividly remembers the years before the shocking diagnosis.
00:18She was in her 20s and says the red flags were repeatedly dismissed by doctors.
00:24I was just told not to worry about it. I was too young and just to move on with my
00:28life.
00:28I thought that it was something, maybe diverticulitis or an IBS.
00:34I at one stage thought I had a lactose intolerance and I never thought that I would be looking at
00:39a stage three bowel cancer diagnosis.
00:41By the time it was caught, the cancer had spread.
00:44My life just stopped. I had to stop working. I had to just focus on surviving what I went through.
00:51And I did have four open bowel surgeries in the end to get where I am today.
00:56Rates of early onset bowel cancer are surging among young people in their 20s and 30s and at even faster
01:04rates in young women.
01:06But because bowel cancer is typically perceived as an older person's disease, many young patients say doctors are dismissing their
01:13symptoms because of their age.
01:15They're fit, young, healthy people who eat well, they exercise regularly, they're not overweight.
01:22Experts don't yet know what's causing it. But recent research has found it may be an entirely new disease with
01:29a different cause.
01:30And this expert says many doctors are missing the warning signs.
01:34There is a tendency to dismiss young people as, or it can't be cancer, it's more likely to be something
01:41else.
01:42Bowel Cancer Australia is developing new guidelines specifically for early onset bowel cancer, which could be a world first.
01:50Now close to being in remission, Georgie hopes no one else has to fight so hard to be heard.
01:56Me too.
01:57.
01:58.
01:58.
01:58No, no, no, no, no
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