A mother of two who underwent a four hour operation to remove a 6.5cm bowel tumour has praised the team at Good Hope Hospital who saved her life.

Anna Pinnell, 54, from Streetly, was diagnosed with a stage three bowel cancer when she attended the emergency department at Good Hope Hospital with constipation and pain in her stomach. The tumour had completely blocked the bowel and the team decided that emergency surgery was the only option. Anna was rushed to theatre and consultant colorectal and general surgeon, Mr Haney Youssef, carefully removed the large tumour. He was also able to join the bowel back together, without the need for Anna to have a permanent colostomy bag – something that is quite unusual in this kind of surgery and especially on large tumours.

Anna’s story had started the year before when she started to feel tired and a bit down, so visited her GP who arranged blood tests that showed she was anaemic. Anna – thinking it was probably the menopause – started taking iron tablets. She took two a day for nearly a year, but the tablet masked the changes that were already happening in her bowel movements. When she later started getting cramps and stomach pains, she put it down to the stress of helping to organise her son Stuart’s wedding and her daughter Lucy’s 30th birthday party.

Anna began getting crippling pain in her stomach and after two days, her partner insisted on taking her to the emergency department at Good Hope Hospital where the cancer was diagnosed and quickly removed. Because there were some cancer cells found in her lymph nodes after the surgery, Anna also underwent chemotherapy treatment for six months. Although she didn’t lose her hair, the three-weekly chemotherapy cycle left her extremely tired and because the diagnosis and surgery had happened so quickly, in shock. She still has some lingering side effects from the chemotherapy, but has been reassured by her consultant clinical oncologist, Dr Good, that these will gradually get better.

Anna admits that if anyone reading could take something from her story – it’s not to self-diagnose and if you’re worried about your health, please see your GP. She said: “I wish I had paid more attention to my symptoms and not assumed that I knew what the problem was. It was a complete shock to be told that I had a late stage tumour and it all happened so quickly. I am really grateful to Mr Youssef, Dr Good and the teams who looked after me and helped me to deal with my diagnosis.

“I was fully expecting to wake up with a colostomy bag after my surgery and to find out that Mr Youssef had managed to save my remaining bowel so I didn’t need one, was a huge relief. It’s given me back a quality of life I wasn’t expecting to have.”

Anna, who works as a personal shopper for Tesco online, is returning to work this month after nearly a year off. She is currently cancer free and will have check-ups every six months. Her daughter Lucy lives at home and was there to help her through her treatment and Anna said that the support of her family and friends has been amazing.

Mr Youssef, consultant colorectal and general surgeon, said: “Anna’s tumour was fairly advanced and had it been left any longer, she would have almost certainly had to lose a lot more of her bowel and would have had a permanent stoma bag fitted. I am pleased Anna is doing so well after her treatment and I’d also like to reiterate that if you have symptoms you are worried about – please see your GP.”

The symptoms of bowel (colorectal) cancer can include:

• Bleeding from the back passage (rectum) or blood in your poo
• An unexplained change in normal bowel habits
• A lump that your doctor can feel in your back passage or abdomen (more commonly on the right side)
• A feeling of needing to strain in your back passage (as if you need to pass a bowel motion), even after opening your bowels
• A lower than normal level of red blood cells (anaemia)