Petworth man Iain tells his story for Bowel Cancer Awareness month

Hannah said: “You read a lot about people who have bowel cancer at Iain’s age. It’s not an old man’s disease.”

Iain, who was the deputy manager at Covers in Chichester, continues to help out at work between fortnightly treatments.

“By the end of the following week you feel normal again – just in time for it to happen again. I first started getting pains in February, 2013, but kept getting told there was nothing to worry about.

“I was admitted to hospital in July, 2013, and had an operation on July 17.

“They thought I had Crohn’s.

“Everything was good until December, I was having chemotherapy the whole time – 29 cycles of it.

“I was getting pain in September and was told it was nothing to worry about. On February 14 this year I went back into hospital for a week.

“The following Friday I had another emergency operation where they removed all of the bowel.

“The doctors said that surgically, that was all they could do.”

Iain now wants to give a special mention to Macmillan Cancer Care.

“A lot is often said about other cancer charities, but you don’t hear about Macmillan so much.

“They have been incredible.

“I would like to give them a mention and a thank you.”

THE charity Bowel Cancer UK has launched a ‘Never Too Young’ campaign.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of bowel cancer in patients under the age of 50. According to the charity, every year more than 2,000 younger people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK, of which 38 are under 20.

For details see Bowel Cancer UK