A 22-year-old woman who was diagnosed with bowel cancer has opened up about the symptoms that she ignored.
Charlotte Lasica from Sydney started getting stomach pain and cramps in early 2024, and she didn’t think much of it.
Like so many young women, she assumed it was just period cramps or something she ate.
“I was putting it down to my menstrual cycle or just something that didn't agree with my belly,” she recalled.
But by July, the cramps became relentless, and her bloating got worse. A friend, studying to be a doctor, urged her to get checked.
“One of my good family friends is studying to be a doctor, and she saved me in a way. She pushed me, she said: 'You need to go get checked.'”
That push may have saved Charlotte’s life.
Tests in August revealed that Charlotte had stage three bowel cancer.
The disease had already spread to her nearby lymph nodes.
“My gastroenterologist tried to reassure me, saying no it's not bowel cancer, you're too young,” Charlotte told ABC News.
“Then I went in for my colonoscopy and got the news that it was bowel cancer. I was his youngest patient he's ever had to tell the news to, so he was in complete shock as well.”
Bowel cancer, which kills tens of thousands each year in the UK and the US, is the fourth most common cancer in both countries, with around 44,000 cases annually in the UK and 142,000 in the US, per the Daily Mail.
Symptoms to watch for include consistent diarrhoea or constipation, needing to poo more or less frequently, blood in stool, stomach pain, lumps in the stomach, bloating, unexpected weight loss, and fatigue.
Doctors urge anyone experiencing these symptoms to seek medical advice.
In September 2024, Charlotte underwent a total colectomy, a major surgery where her entire colon was removed, resulting in a temporary ileostomy.
She admitted it was hard to adjust: “I couldn't look at it for two months, I couldn't look at it. I refused. In hospital I had my stoma nurse come around and say to me, 'you're not leaving until you can change it yourself' and I said 'I'm not doing it'.”
But over time, she found a way to live with it.
“I couldn't do it. But now it's just my thing. People wake up in the morning and they put their glasses on to see or they check their glucose. I just go 'this is my thing' and it's not going to be forever. It has essentially saved my life,” she said.
Charlotte endured eight rounds of gruelling chemotherapy over six months, and last month, she received the news everyone dreams of: her CT scan results showed she was officially cancer-free.
Now, she’s using her story to raise awareness for other young people who may ignore red flag symptoms or feel dismissed by doctors because of their age.
“I think because on the outside I looked ok and I felt ok within myself, I just kept dismissing it. It's like I almost didn't want to know, even though knowing would have changed my outcomes dramatically.”
She wants others to know how crucial it is to advocate for themselves: “I just want to put my story out there to encourage people to advocate for themselves and if they aren't getting answers, to push for them.
"You know your body better than anyone else and you can't let someone tell you otherwise. A colonoscopy is nothing compared to what you go through if you don't get that initial scope done, so do it.”