In 2021, Kerrie Kennedy was at home in her house in Tallaght, Dublin, with her now husband, experiencing a miscarriage. It was painful both physically and mentally, she said, but she was relieved to have the support of her family at the time.
The miscarriage, however, was only the beginning of her health challenges. She had been in hospital beforehand with excruciating stomach pain. She underwent tests, and doctors ruled out a link between the pain and pregnancy. After meeting a new doctor, she was told there was a possibility it could be cancer.
Soon after the loss of her child, she returned to hospital and was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer at the age of 39, despite presenting to hospital on and off for a year seeking answers to stomach pain and a change in bowel movements.
“I think that baby was sent to me to save me. I’m not sure, if that miscarriage hadn’t happened, if we’d have found out I had bowel cancer,” she said.
“It was devastating but, at the time, I think I was in fight or flight mode. I suppose because straight after, I was getting the colonoscopy [a procedure to internally examine the bowel], and then I was told I would be facing a cancer battle.”
During the year prior to her diagnosis, she was in hospital for six-week periods at a time, treating what her clinicians believed to be appendicitis.
This was very difficult, the now 43-year-old said, because it was during the Covid pandemic, meaning she was often in hospital by herself without any visitors. This took a toll on her mental health.
Being diagnosed with cancer after 12 months of questions was “almost a relief”, she said.
“I finally knew what it was. My mother had three cancers and came through the three of them, so cancer back then didn’t scare me. It’s obviously a horrible thing, but I thought it would be like my mam,” she said.
However, following surgery and two different types of chemotherapy, subsequent scans showed her cancer had spread to her liver and her lymph nodes - making her cancer incurable.
The chemotherapy was very hard on her body, she said, and she had “come to the decision I was going to take the time I had and just enjoy that time”.
But in January 2023, she was put on much less invasive immunotherapy drugs on compassionate grounds, and she said this is “much better”.
“Then it was about controlling it [the cancer]. My last scan showed it hasn’t grown, which is amazing. I’m on the right path now. I have a scan every four months, so that’s how I kind of live my life now - four months at a time,” she said.
‘I was told I’ll be on treatment for life. If I come off treatment, I might get nine months to carry the child but I mightn’t be here to see the child grow up. That’s cruel’
— Kerrie Kennedy
“They say it’s stable now, so because there’s no cure, that’s kind of the best news I could get. I’ll still be on treatment for life.”
She was speaking as part of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, to highlight the increasing prevalence of the disease among younger people.
Almost 2,600 people in Ireland are diagnosed each year with bowel cancer – making it the most common cancer among men and the third most common among women. One in 10 people who have bowel, or colorectal, cancer are under 50 years of age.
According to a paper published in The Lancet Oncology in December, rising rates of early-onset bowel cancer are a “global phenomenon”.
Prof David Gallagher, a medical oncologist and medical geneticist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, said the increase in colorectal cancer in younger people is “without a clear explanation”.
“There is something in our environment that is causing it. You could guess what the environmental cause is, anything from processed food, to the business of our lives and everything else you could think of,” he said.
In Ireland, following recent expansion in eligibility, people aged 59 to 70 are invited to take a bowel-screening test every two years to catch disease early. But Prof Gallagher said there is “clinical merit” in lowering this age further.
“In the US, it is recommended that people have their first colonoscopy at 40 years of age. With any screening tool in a public healthcare system, there is always a financial consideration, access consideration and resource consideration,” he said.
[ Bowel cancer screening programme extended to people aged up to 70 Opens in new window ]
“So the best thing to do from a cancer-prevention situation would be to do a colonoscopy on every 40-year-old in Ireland. But we don’t have the endoscopic resources to do that.”
Because of the increasing prevalence of bowel cancer in younger people, the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute has begun an Irish Cancer Society-funded young onset programme, which provides supports for patients diagnosed under the age of 50.
“Financial issues, sexual issues, these are often not addressed in the busyness of an oncology clinic, or at least not addressed adequately. The relationship issues that arise for a young person or sexual issues are different for older people,” Prof Gallagher said.
“I think fertility plays a part. People are less established in their careers and a lot of challenges go with that in terms of building your career and not having a financial cushion to fall back on if they’re out of work for a period of time receiving a treatment. It’s just a different, oftentimes more complicated and multifaceted care plan that’s required.”
The issue around fertility and relationships is something to which Kennedy strongly relates. She and her husband Thomas brought their wedding forward as they feared she would not be well enough for the date they had originally booked.
But they also planned to have a child together, carrying out fertility treatment to preserve an embryo prior to chemotherapy.
“In the back of my head, I always thought we’d eventually get to use that and have our own child. But then I was told I’ll be on treatment for life. If I come off treatment, I might get nine months to carry the child but I mightn’t be here to see the child grow up. That’s cruel,” she said.
When she was told her cancer had stabilised, she “went into a deep depression with panic attacks and anxiety”.
“But I didn’t understand where it came from because I was getting good news with my cancer, but it seemed I’m now in pre-menopause from the treatment. I think it was the final nail in the coffin for me. I think the loss of not having a baby is hitting me.”
Ms Kennedy has been in counselling through the Irish Cancer Society, which has helped her come to terms with this fact.
Overall, she is optimistic about her future. She likes to ignore her diagnosis insofar as she can, and instead lives “as full a life as I can”.
Her message to other people is clear: if you have similar symptoms that she had then you should ask to be tested for bowel cancer.
“I remember at the time I asked why it wasn’t picked up and the simple answer was: I did have all the symptoms, but my age went against me. It just wasn’t on their radar,” she said. “If you’re having these symptoms, push for the colonoscopy.”
