(Colleen Connors/ CBC News) — Stephanie Budgell does not want others to go through her experience of a Stage 4 colorectal cancer diagnosis, and is calling on health authorities to lower the age for screening.
“I want family doctors to see that it’s not an old man’s disease anymore,” said Budgell, 36, who lives in Pasadena on Newfoundland’s west coast, was diagnosed in March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She has undergone a year of multiple surgeries to remove most of her liver and rectum, as well as chemotherapy and radiation to tackle the life-threatening disease that all started when she wasn’t feeling right and she found blood in her stool.
At her age and fitness level, Budgell — an avid runner and cyclist — thought it was unbelievable to have this type of cancer. (…)