A mother-of-three was “shocked” to discover she was suffering from stage 4 bowel cancer after doctors initially diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection.
Zoe Gardner-Lawson, 36, started experiencing a constant dull ache in her lower back in August 2024. Before the pain started, she had felt “fit and healthy”.
The sensation led her to make a phone appointment with her doctor, who prescribed a five-day course of antibiotics for a suspected UTI.
When the pain did not subside, she was given two more courses of antibiotics over the following month.
“There was just no difference — and by my third dose, I really got worse,” she said. “I was basically bedridden – I felt really bad and the back pain had spread to my stomach.”
On September 19, Gardner-Lawson had another appointment with her doctor, who advised her to go straight to the emergency room.
Doctors first suspected kidney stones after checking her symptoms and performing a physical exam. But a CT scan ruled that out and she was referred for blood tests.
“My blood was checked for markers of infection, called creatine reactive protein,” Gardner-Lawson said. “They were increasing, until they reached 364n/mol – a normal range for females is 52.9n/mol and 91.9n/mol.”
When a general surgeon came to see her, he noted that she appeared to have fluid in her abdomen. At that point, Gardner-Lawson insisted on doing a full body scan.
She underwent a CT scan and an hour later, another consultant informed her that she had a perforation in her bowel and needed to be admitted immediately.
A second opinion in October revealed she had a 5cm lime-sized tumor in her bowel, which was causing the perforation. The cancer had spread to the liver, peritoneum and lymph nodes of the stomach.
Gardner-Lawson was transferred to Cleveland Clinic London for further treatment, where Murray proposed a treatment plan.
“I needed emergency surgery to remove the tumor in my bowel, get rid of all the fluid and debris that was coming out and then reassess,” she said.
The operation took place on October 3 and lasted four hours, with the aim of removing as much of the tumor and fluids as possible.
A biopsy later confirmed that the tumor was a cancerous blastoma – one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Gardner-Lawson was told she would have to triple her chemotherapy dose.
“I’ve put up with it like anybody, it’s very difficult,” she said. “I’m on round five of eight in total – that’s three chemos per round.”
In addition to chemotherapy, Gardner-Lawson enrolled in a natural medicine clinic for guidance on diet and exercise, as well as vitamin C infusions and mistletoe injections.
“Basically I just got the hang of the kitchen sink; improve my prognosis as much as possible,” said Gardner-Lawson, who has set up a GoFundMe to help fund her alternative treatments.
She believes that if she had been offered a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) earlier, doctors could have caught her cancer years ago.
She is an advocate for lowering the minimum age for bowel cancer screenings to “at least 30,” if not 25.
For now, her prognosis remains uncertain and doctors are waiting to see if the tumors shrink in response to chemotherapy.
“The plan is that after I’ve had my sixth round of chemotherapy, they’re hoping I’ll respond well,” Gardner-Lawson said. “All good, I will have to book in for a second operation – to remove the lymph nodes in the stomach and two tumors in the liver.”
Gardner-Lawson hopes the minimum age for bowel cancer screenings will eventually drop to “at least” 30.
“If my disease had been caught earlier, it would have been easier to treat… I think the minimum age for testing should be lowered,” said Gardner-Lawson, a human resources worker from Berkshire. England.
“My professor, Jamie Murphy, told me I could have lived with this tumor for up to four years before my diagnosis – that’s terrifying,” she said. “If all goes well, I still have a chance to achieve disease-free status, but it all depends on these next two years.”
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