'I never thought something was wrong with me... within weeks I felt like I was on death row'
31.10.2023 - 10:35
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A super-fit GMP officer who thought she was 'bunged up' was horrified when her constipation turned out to be bowel cancer.
Stacey Rigby, from Wigan, noticed she hadn't had a bowel movement for four days and believed eating eggs every morning as part of a new high-protein diet and exercise regime was the cause. When she was finally able to 'go', she noticed a pale pink stain on the toilet roll and, thinking it was due to straining on loo, thought no more of it.
But Stacey's concerned wife, Jamie Middleton, urged her to visit the GP if it happened again and this, coupled with Dame Deborah James' widely-publicised cancer battle, encouraged her to book an appointment. The 41-year-old's doctor performed an examination, asked her to give stool samples for further investigation and booked her in for a colonoscopy.
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Stacey was stunned to be told doctors had discovered a 4cm grade 2 cancerous tumour that they estimated she'd been living with for two years. Days after the diagnosis, she underwent a gruelling five-hour op to remove the mass, along with 17cm of bowel.
A week on from her surgery, Stacey now faces an anxious wait to see if the cancer has spread into her lymph nodes and if she needs chemotherapy.
The police officer is sharing her story to encourage people to check their poo and get anything unusual investigated by a doctor. She said: "We recently joined a new gym and I changed my diet.
"I was about a month into the diet change and I was having omelettes every day for