Health

Single mum, 32, loses brave fight with bowel cancer after telling family ‘please look after my boys’


A BRAVE single mum lost her fight with bowel cancer moments after pleading with her family to “please look after my boys”.

Tanya Davies, 32, died on Thursday surrounded by her loved ones, including her two sons Ben, 14, and Jack, eight.

 Tanya, pictured with her oldest son
Tanya, pictured with her oldest son
 Wither her youngest son, Jack, who she spoke to about a future without her

Tanya Davies

Wither her youngest son, Jack, who she spoke to about a future without her

The mum-of-two, from Newcastle, was put in remission in December but in March she was told her cancer had returned and had spread to her pelvis and liver.

She remained hopeful in the last few months of her life and tragically her death came just days after she booked a family holiday to Greece.

“We can’t wait…more memories to be made,” her last Facebook post read.

Her great uncle and godfather Ian Bennett recalled how she always looked glamorous and was still having makeovers in her hospice bed.

She’d enjoyed girly sleepovers and glasses of wine, as her friends said she was determined to make “every last second count”.

Ian told ChronicleLive: “She was a proper strong lady.

“All she would say to me though was ‘Uncle Ian, please bring those boys up properly.’ It was all she wanted.”

Tanya’s story touched the community, who raised £20,000 for her family.

BOWEL CANCER – THE UK’S 2nd DEADLIEST CANCER

Bowel cancer, also known as colon cancer or colorectal cancer, is the fourth most common form of the disease in the UK, after breastprostate and lung cancers.

It’s the UK’s 2nd deadliest cancer – after lung – claiming 16,000 lives a year, but it CAN be cured – if it’s caught early enough.

Early diagnosis is vital if you are to survive the disease, and screening tests and knowing the signs and symptoms is key to the disease being picked up early.

That’s why The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign last year – to put pressure on the Government to lower the screening age from 60 to 50 in England and Wales – bringing it in line with Scotland.

Last summer, health secretary Matthew Hancock agreed to lower the screening age, a move that could save up to 4,500 lives every year – marking a victory for The Sun and campaigners.

Fewer than one in ten people survive bowel cancer if it’s picked up at stage 4, but detected quickly, more than nine in ten patients will live five years or longer.

The five red-flag symptoms of bowel cancer include:

  • bleeding from the back passage, or blood in your poo
  • a change in your normal toilet habits – going more frequently for example
  • pain or a lump in your tummy
  • extreme tiredness
  • losing weight

Tumours in the bowel typically bleed, which can cause a shortage of red blood cells, known as anaemia. It can cause tiredness and sometimes breathlessness.

In some cases bowel cancer can block the bowel, this is known as a bowel obstruction.

Before she died Tanya revealed how she’d sat her boys down and made them “promise to always look after one another”.

“It was heartbreaking telling them,” she told Fabulous Digital.

“It the one of the hardest things I had to do.

“I had to do it without crying.”

The day before the heartbreaking conversation she’d been told her bowel cancer had returned and – having spread to her pelvis and liver – was stage four.

Tanya was diagnosed  after a stomach bug turned into something more sinister.

Initially doctors suspected a cyst but, after rounds of tests, she learnt she had bowel cancer.

She had 17 rounds of chemotherapy and in December was told she was in remission.

Delighted, she looked forward to getting on with her life.

But a scan in March revealed the cancer had returned and there was no more treatment available.

Tanya’s funeral will be held at the West Road Crematorium on Thursday May 30.

Rates of bowel cancer are rising in the under 50s, with a surge of cases in people aged 20 to 29, two new studies have shown.

If the alarming trend continues, experts say the UK will have to screen at a lower age, to detect more cases at an earlier stage.

In England and Wales, everyone over the age of 60 is currently invited to have bowel cancer screening tests every two years. In Scotland screening starts at 50.

Last summer, after The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign to put pressure on the Government to lower the screening age in England and Wales to 50, health secretary Matthew Hancock announced it would happen.

Screening at 50 is expected to begin once a new, more accurate screening test – the FIT – test is introduced by the NHS.

While the FIT test was meant to be rolled out last year, health chiefs say it is likely to happen this summer.

 Tanya died on Thursday

Tanya Davies

Tanya died on Thursday
 Tanya's two sons

Tanya Davies

Tanya’s two sons


We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.