Dale Young, Derry-Londonderry

After being diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in June 2020, I know how important it is to listen to your body.

I’m a 37-year-old family man and I live with my wife Erin, my son Leo and my stepdaughter Bethany. I work for the local council as a handyman and caretaker.

Throughout early 2020, I started to experience extreme fatigue. At first, I put it down to having trained at the gym too much or starting work early, but it became progressively worse and started to worry me. I was sleeping for most of the day after work and only woke up to eat or go to the bathroom. I was also very pale and had trouble going to the toilet.

One day, I was in a meeting when my stomach turned and I ran to the toilet where I must have passed about half a pint of blood. At this point, I panicked and went straight to the out of hours doctor. I was told it was simply haemorrhoids and nothing to worry about and that I was too young for it to be anything of concern. But I knew it was something more serious and I pushed for further tests and was referred for a colonoscopy. Looking back, I’m so thankful that I took the initiative to ask for more tests.

The colonoscopy discovered a tumour in the lower section of bowel, about 5-6cm in size. When they told me, it felt like I was in a bad dream. It took a long time for it to sink in because I was in complete shock.

Telling my family was one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced. I was more worried about them as we had lost our mother to the same disease just a year previously. I felt worse for them than I did for myself because I knew the toll it would take on them. The few months after my diagnosis are a bit blurry now, I think I went into a bit of a daze to cope with everyone around me being upset. It was a really hard time in my life.

I was due to be married a month after my diagnosis, so I spoke to the surgeon and we were able to arrange the surgery to be two weeks before my wedding. This was a great relief as I wanted to have the operation as soon as possible.

My surgeon asked if I was happy for medical students to watch my surgery as he said it was a very unusual case for someone my age and I agreed as anything that can potentially help people in the future is worthwhile. The operation lasted seven hours and the surgeon checked in with me afterwards to reassure me that he had successfully removed the whole tumour.

I then went through chemotherapy. I had to do a three-hour session every two weeks and carry around a slow-release bottle attached to my PICC line (a peripherally inserted central catheter which is a form of intravenous access that can be used for a prolonged period of time) for another 24 hours.

Physically, it hit me very hard as I normally go to the gym three or four times a week. Not being able to exercise really affected by mental wellbeing. To help manage it, I spent a lot of time reading, gaming and watching TV. My family supported me greatly during this time and everyone I met in the hospital and at the cancer centre were nice and helpful.

Currently I am four years clear, waiting for the big five-year scan in July 2025. I try to not worry about it, but it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and sometimes it’s very hard to not dwell on it. A friend of mine, who was diagnosed with cancer about ten years ago, recently died and it broke my heart. He had a newborn and two young children. He found some relief during his cancer journey through talking to me about my experience. I think about him often and consider myself very lucky to still be here today.

I now try my best to keep healthy but still enjoy life. I always try to encourage other people to get checked out if something feels wrong and to remember that you’re not invincible. I’m so thankful to have a future and look forward to what it brings, be it good or bad.