‘Why does this keep happening?’: Daughter dies of bowel cancer after being told it was indigestion

A mum whose daughter was told repeatedly that she had indigestion and then died from bowel cancer wants to make people more aware of the symptoms.

Lydia Page died in 2012 at the age of 23, after she went to the doctor many times with bowel cancer symptoms, only to be told she had indigestion.

By the time she was diagnosed, it was too late and the cancer had spread. 

Now her mum, Susan Page, 68, from St John’s Hill Grove, in Battersea, is on a mission to spread the word that young people do get bowel cancer and that all medical professionals need to be on the lookout for tell-tale symptoms.

Susan said: “Lydia’s story is an important example of how we need to be more aware – not just the public but medical professionals too.

“I was told Lydia’s age had been against her – they didn’t test people of her age for bowel cancer. And it’s still happening – others are dying too young. We all have to do more to stop it.”

Lydia was studying photography at Nottingham Trent University and was on her first summer break when she began to experience a niggling pain in her right side.

At the start of her second year, she went to see a GP who told her she had indigestion.

Susan said: “This went on for weeks and months. Lydia went back and forth to the GP and sometimes A&E, but her bleeding was dismissed as taking too many pain killers.”

Eventually, Lydia was admitted to hospital and a scan picked up speckled tumours on her liver.

“Still no-one mentioned cancer and Lydia was discharged with lots of medication and morphine and told the test results would be sent to her GP,” said Susan.

“Previous to this, my brother Colin had been diagnosed with bowel cancer. On the train home, Lydia started talking about her uncle and whether she could have cancer. I didn’t think she could as the symptoms were different.

“But then she said she was bleeding when she went to the toilet. That hit me like an electric shock. She said she’d told the hospital but they said it was her stomach bleeding, caused by the Ibuprofen.”

Weeks later, just after Christmas, Lydia’s GP delivered the devastating news that she had bowel cancer and that it was incurable.

She was referred to the Royal Free Hospital where they told her the cancer had spread to her liver and the characteristics had changed so she was also diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer.

“The doctors said it was incredibly rare and just bad luck. They didn’t mean it flippantly but it was very hard to hear,” said Susan.

Lydia underwent chemotherapy and responded well but the cancer returned and spread to bones in her head.

“Lydia was amazing – so brave,” said Susan. “She wasn’t worried about herself but me and her dad.

“I think about Lydia every day. The trauma goes after three years but you are left with a terrible guilt – how could this happen to someone so young?”

For a list of bowel cancer symptoms please visit the Cancer Research UK website.

Pictured top: From left, Lydia Page who died from bowel cancer aged 23 and, right, with her dad, Geoffrey Page (Picture: Family handout)