Lara Parker

February 24th 2024, my life took an unexpected turn. I went to the emergency room for them to discover I was highly anaemic and after a few more scans and tests, they discovered a large tumour in my bowel and that it was in fact bowel cancer. From that point I underwent emergency surgery and ended up with a ileostomy bag.

That last year was my hardest I’ve had to go through, going through chemotherapy and having to get used to my new way of living with my ileostomy bag. Last September I finished my 12 rounds of chemotherapy and at the end of November last year I was lucky enough to have a reversal surgery to remove my ileostomy.

I was always nervous about people finding out my condition as I didn’t want anyone to look at me differently and feel sorry for me as well as overall I just felt a little embarrassed. I realise now that I should have never felt ashamed of my condition and that by going through what I have, it has made me a stronger and better person and that Bowel Cancer is something that no one likes to talk about because it’s icky.

1 in 10 people under the age of 50 are diagnosed with bowel cancer with an increase rate of 266% over three decades of it occurring amongst people between the ages of 15-24 with Australia’s Bowel Cancer cases of people under the age of 50 being the highest in the world.

June is Bowel Cancer awareness month and as well between June 23rd to June 29th this year is National Stomal therapy week. That’s why this month I have decided to raise money for #never2young campaign under the Bowel Cancer Australia Foundation to help raise funds to go into research and development in providing more resources and funds into research for young people who are affected by Bowel Cancer.

Any little bit helps go a long way if you are in the position to do so. Any donations are greatly appreciated 🫶🏼