Health3 min(s) read
Published 15:35 03 Apr 2026 GMT
Woman issues urgent warning after vacation stomach bug turned out to be cancer
A woman has issued an urgent warning after what she believed was a simple stomach bug picked up on vacation turned out to be colorectal cancer.
Marie McGrath, 52, from Northern Ireland, said she was left in shock after a colonoscopy revealed the diagnosis.
The active mum recalled the moment doctors delivered the life-changing news and admitted she struggled to process what she was hearing.
"[I thought] she can't really be saying these words to me," she told BBC Northern Ireland. "This is a tummy bug."
McGarth said she "went a bit blank" when doctors told her they had found "something of a significant size and of a significant concern".
What made her case even scarier is that she did not experience the usual symptoms linked to the cancer, which can include changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, or blood in stool.
"Bowel cancer [colorectal cancer] was not on my radar,” she added. "Bowel cancer, for me, if there were tick boxes, I wouldn't be ticking any boxes."
The Mom Calls for Earlier Screening
McGrath now believes her diagnosis may have been missed if not for her doctor’s personal experience with the disease.
Her GP, Dr. Jonny Dillon, had previously been diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 49 and also showed no obvious symptoms, undergoing surgery just after turning 50.
Reflecting on how easily her condition could have gone undetected, McGrath said: “I’m wondering, would I have made it to 60 if I hadn’t got the GP [physician] circumstances at the time?
"Had my symptoms maybe been put down to irritable bowel, for example, that could’ve been ongoing and ongoing and ongoing for a much longer period of time. What would my chances have been then?” she said, adding that the possibility of misdiagnosis frightened her “very much.”
Her experience has prompted her to question current screening policies in Northern Ireland, where routine bowel cancer screening is offered between the ages of 60 and 74
"If much younger people are being affected, why is the threshold so high for us to be diagnosed and diagnosed at an early stage? It just is unfathomable to me,” she said.
Why Early Detection Matters
Health experts say bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK, and early detection can dramatically improve survival rates.
Screening is usually carried out using a faecal immunochemical test (FIT), a home kit that checks for hidden blood in stool samples.
It can detect the disease before symptoms pop up and identify polyps that may later develop into cancer.
However, concerns have been raised that screening opportunities are being missed. In Northern Ireland, people aged between 50 and 59 are currently excluded from routine screening, potentially missing multiple chances for early detection.
"This isn't screening for a head cold. This is screening for cancer. This is screening for a condition that could result in major surgery or even take your life," Dillon said.
Campaigners have warned that delays in diagnosis can have serious consequences, as many cases are only identified at later stages.
More than nine in 10 people can survive bowel cancer if it is caught early, but currently, "one in four people are currently diagnosed in A&E" when the disease is more advanced.
Officials say plans are in place to expand screening and lower the eligible age.