Dundee grandmother Lynda Mulholland had just returned home from a family holiday to America when she picked up an NHS letter with the results of her bowel screening test.
She was taken aback when she opened it and discovered a positive result.
“I had no symptoms whatsoever,” Lynda, 66, explained.
“I have always been pretty fit and it was nothing for me to climb the Blacklaw Hill twice a day.
“Nothing had led me to believe there was anything untoward going on inside my body.
“So to read that I had a positive result, I was shocked and at the same time, I had a bit of disbelief.
“I felt so sure there had been a mistake as I was as fit and able as I had ever been.”
How doctors found Lynda’s bowel cancer
In early 2022, Lynda was getting ready to jet off to Disneyland, Florida with her daughter and her family. Before she left, she completed the routine bowel screening test, not thinking too much of it.
The NHS letter requesting she book in for a colonoscopy was waiting for her when she got back. The procedure is where a thin, flexible, tube with a camera is used to look inside the bowel.
“I had the colonoscopy on May 9 and I’ll never forget that date as I had booked tickets to see my favourite singer Keith Urban in Edinburgh,” Lynda said.
“I was determined to see him that evening so I decided to have the procedure done with only gas and air – I didn’t want to be held up too long in hospital recovering from a light anaesthetic.
“But I had been quite naive because it was very painful.”
Lynda said the discomfort made it hard to concentrate during the procedure.
“I do remember the doctor telling me that in a few weeks I would be heading for an operation because he was pretty convinced there was a tumour there.
“His exact words were: ‘Well Lynda, I know isn’t the best news for a Monday morning.
“But I am more than sure that what we have discovered today will be indeed a cancerous tumour’.
“You could have knocked me down with a feather right at that moment. I was completely floored.”
After a further CT scan, doctors told her she required surgery to remove the tumour on the right side of her bowel.
‘Scared I wouldn’t survive the operation’
Ahead of the surgery in Ninewells, Lynda was really anxious.
“I was so frightened I wouldn’t come out of the operation alive,” she said.
“It was the fear of something going wrong because I wasn’t going in to the operation as a 24-year-old, I was 64.”
The operation saw the right side of her bowel removed along with 30 lymph nodes.
The lymph nodes would then be examined to see if the cancer had spread.
“I was very emotional the day after the operation – I was emotional at just the fact I had woken up after what I had gone through,” Lynda said.
“One of the nurses was really lovely to me though.
“She said the operation had been a success and that I didn’t need to have a colostomy bag.
The surgeon, Lynda remembers, told her the tumour had been there a long time, lying dormant almost. The surgeon believed it was just beginning to spread.
“Then she [the surgeon] said things would have been very different had I not done the bowel screening test.
“I will never forget her words. She said: ‘Trust me, you and I would be having a very different conversation less than two years down the line.
“That sentence still sends shivers down my spine.
“If I hadn’t had the screening test and had just left it, I might have been looking at bigger operations. Or I might have had to have aggressive chemotherapy.
“I thank my lucky stars every day.”
Getting back to fitness after bowel cancer
Lynda received a very welcome phone call at home a fortnight later to let her know there was no sign of cancer in her lymph nodes. That meant she wouldn’t need follow-up chemotherapy.
And since then Lynda has been in good health, sticking with a programme of regular check-ups.
She has joined a gym, The Klub, in Invergowrie, which has helped her get her fitness back. And in August she took part in the 20-mile Dundee Kiltwalk with her daughter Kay, 43 and friends to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK.
“I wanted to do it for Bowel Cancer UK. I wanted to give something back because I had got so much out of Ninewells,” she said.
“The whole team there were amazing. I also did it because of the bowel cancer screening programme because it saved my life.”
Daughter Kay was ‘simply amazing’
Lynda revealed how important it has been to have had the support of her family and friends.
“I have got really good friends. But special mention must go to my daughter Kay.
“She went way beyond the call of duty while I was going through this. She made sure everyone was kept up to date on my progress. Kay was simply amazing.
“My husband Phil and son Paul, 42, also did all they could to help and understand. I thank them both for their love and support.”
Now after spending the last year having check ups and recovering, Lynda is looking ahead to 2024.
She will continue to help husband Phil, who previously owned Piperdam Golf and Leisure Resort, with his business, St Andrews Forest Lodges.
As well as spending time with with her two grandsons, Rory, 9, Adam, 6.
Lynda is also considering trips abroad.
She said: “Having had bowel cancer and the operation, it really makes you appreciate what is important and how life is short. This is why we are now thinking about doing these things next year.”
Lynda urges anyone who is eligible to do the bowel screening test.
“I would encourage every single person to do the test the moment it comes through the door. There are people who just put these tests in the bin.
“One lady in particular I know is doing this. And I told her ‘if you don’t do it for yourself, please do it for me’. I said to her just think what could have happened to me if I had put it in the bin.
“That screening test saved my life.”
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