Brisbane mother Susan Schmidt is a woman on two missions: a survival mission plus a mission to inform and educate everyone that they need to “stop the taboo and take notice of their poo” and not be complacent about early detection of possible symptoms of bowel cancer.

While Susan was feeling generally unwell for several months, the low point came in September 2023 when she collapsed on the floor of the bathroom with severe stomach pain. She soon saw her GP, but because her horse had contracted salmonella poisoning they thought she might have it as well.

But three days later she experienced severe stomach pains again which prompted her GP to send her for a colonoscopy at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside. Within days she had the investigation completed, plus a full round of scans and consultation with St Vincent’s colorectal surgeon Professor Andrew Stevenson and she was diagnosed with stage 4 rectal cancer.

Given that there was spread of her cancer, Professor Stevenson referred Susan to St Vincent’s medical oncologist Dr Po Inglis who decided that treatment would be required to shrink the primary rectal cancer and the lung lesions with the treatment starting in September 2023.

Susan had a complete response to her primary rectal cancer, but within months her lung lesions started increasing in size and she was faced with having more systemic treatment.

There’s since been more surgery and more chemotherapy – but Susan is determined that other people, especially other women, can learn something from her difficult cancer journey.

As another St Vincent’s Northside patient Wayne Dale approaches the one year mark of his own shock Stage 4 bowel cancer diagnosis, he wistfully reflects on the most confronting year of his life and is also focussed on a dual purpose – he wants others to learn from his experience while singing the praises of St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside as “being his saviour!”

Last July, Wayne went from being a healthy 55 year old male with no family history of bowel cancer and (what he thought was) minor symptoms of irregular bowel movements and a sore shoulder - to admitting himself to St Vincent’s Northside Emergency Department - to being diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer (more specifically locally advanced rectal and metastatic cancer of the liver) and suddenly being advised to get his affairs in order.

Within days of admission, Wayne was preparing for his first round of chemotherapy under the expert guidance of oncologist Dr Po Inglis and was grappling with the sudden and serious threat to his mortality.

Wayne - a data scientist with a national regulatory body, who’s a self-confessed ‘methodical and detail kind of guy’ - had previously received positive news in precautionary blood tests. But he and his GP were still concerned.

A new study by the Cancer Alliance Queensland shows that while bowel cancer rates have been decreasing in the over-50 age group, there’s been an alarming increase in the incidence of young onset colorectal (bowel) cancer worldwide in people under the age of 50, with rates nearly doubling since the 1990s.

That was mirrored in more specific data with the study focussing on all colorectal cancer diagnoses in Queensland between 2001 and 2020 with the proportion of younger people (aged 20 to 49 years) increasing from 7 to 10% over 20 years and with a greater percentage of Stage 3 and Stage 4 cancer. The good news is that the younger group of patients had a better overall survival rate at various stages up to 10 years post-diagnosis.

Wayne continues to “count his blessings” that his cancer was detected when it was and says the nursing staff of Ward 1C at St Vincent’s Northside were amazing. 

“From the moment I was admitted, their professionalism, expertise, and compassion were second to none. No concern was too small, and their guidance and support during those first eight days were invaluable,” says Wayne.
 

“The cancer care nurses were incredible as well. From my first day of admission, they provided clear and comprehensive information, which helped my wife and I to navigate the overwhelming amount of details regarding my diagnosis and treatment. We are truly grateful for their kindness and support.”

But good news has recently visited Wayne. While he has endured 20 rounds of systemic treatment involving chemotherapy a recent PET scan showing the bowel tumour is now ‘undetectable’ with continuing treatment now focussing on the tumours that have metastised in his liver.