‘Cancer doesn’t care who you are, it can happen to anyone’

When Laura Corby agreed to have her operation live-streamed as part of a training programme for surgeons, she expected everything to be straight-forward.

But instead of a benign growth in her bowel, her surgical team found what looked like cancer and had to halt the procedure.

The experts watching from around the globe agreed, and Laura was given the news when she woke from the anaesthetic.

The 54-year-old mum of two, from Deal, said: “It was such a shock, because everyone had thought it was benign.

“But I was guided by the surgeons and the team, and I feel very fortunate it was caught when it was, as it hadn’t spread and it was diagnosed early.

“My experience has only been excellence with everyone and I am very grateful to everyone involved in my care.”

Laura had first started experiencing pain in her stomach while on holiday in August 2024. She spoke to her GP when she returned, and a sample of her stool was tested for blood, which can be a sign of bowel cancer. But it came back clear.

A barrage of other tests followed, and Laura was diagnosed with gallstones but nothing else was found.

She said: “I thought something was wrong, but I had a thorough MOT and nothing was coming up.

“I still had issues with pain, and I was seeing things in my bowel movements that I wasn’t happy with.

“Then a poo test came through the post for the bowel screening programme in early summer 2025. I sent it off, and this time the results came back confirming there were traces of blood.

“I had a colposcopy, and that was when they removed a few small polyp growths in my bowel. I was advised that one larger polyp, which looked benign, would have to be surgically removed.

“It should have been a simple procedure to remove it and I agreed to be part of a training course, but when the surgeons actually saw it they said it looked like cancer. There were expert surgeons across the globe participating and they all agreed it couldn’t be taken out that day.”

Laura had surgery to remove the tumour and thirty centimetres of her bowel at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate in October. She was left with a temporary stoma, an opening in her stomach to bypass her bowel.

She said: “The stoma team were fantastic, but my experience with the stoma was incredibly difficult to deal with.

“I was so sick, because my body rejected it. I kept getting blockages, which caused muscular spasm pain and vomiting, including vomiting up bowel products. I lost lots of weight, my body was exhausted and I became very weak.

“it was extremely challenging and I ended up back in hospital five times for five days each emergency trip. I was meant to have the stoma for six months but the team reversed it after six weeks as they could see how ill it was making me. 

“Even throughout that, I felt so grateful, because my cancer hadn’t spread and was caught early so I didn’t need to have chemotherapy or any other treatment. This positive outcome kept me going.

“I could put up with anything, because I knew I would get to an end point.”

The special diet Laura had to follow while the stoma was in place possibly triggered inflammation of her gallstones, and she is now due to have her gallbladder removed later this month after several more hospital admissions to manage internal infections.

She said: “That will be my end point, and I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me get there.

“All the way through the team have been fantastic; the surgeons, the stoma team, the nurses, and everyone else who has been supporting me.

“The experience has brought my family closer together. My sisters live abroad and came to England to look after me. My husband and children gave me strength through every step, every day.

“Work have been very supportive and gave me the time I needed.

“I lead a very healthy, active lifestyle, but I still got cancer. It doesn’t care who you are, this can happen to anyone.

“That’s why I tell everyone to do the poo test when it comes through the post and doing anything I can to raise awareness.

“This experience has helped me appreciate the simple things, like walking the dog and just being with my family and the people I love– I was desperate to do that when I was in hospital.

“You start to realise that most so called issues are first-world problems. They aren’t really problems at all - if you have your health and your family, that’s what truly matters."