Member of the Northern Ireland Cancer Research Consumer Forum
Trish Prosser’s Story of living with anal cancer is available on BBC News website.
Click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yq1yg9ldwo
Being diagnosed in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Trish said it was a lonely cancer journey and it’s only recently that she can talk about the trauma.
“I may have looked normal on the outside as I didn’t lose my hair, but I felt awful on the inside, I just felt I was falling apart,” she said.
“My worst symptom was fatigue; I was so tired. I also had an itch around my anal area, but I had no changes to my bowel habits and to be honest none of those symptoms normally associated with cancer,” Trish said.
The mum-of-four said she was too embarrassed to tell loved ones about the type of cancer she had as she felt there was a stigma surrounding anal cancer.
Anal cancer is rare, with about 1,500 people diagnosed in the UK each year, and approximately 40-50 of those cases are from Northern Ireland.
“People are too embarrassed to talk about issues down below or in their bottoms, it can be embarrassing even taboo, but I want to help break the stigma,” Trish said.
For the full story click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yq1yg9ldwo