Doctors sent me home four times when I complained about my stomach pain. Then I got a world-shattering diagnosis

Monica Ackermann had not been able to go to the toilet for two days when the crippling abdominal pain started.

The 31-year-old woman was in so much pain that she could barely walk down the stairs to walk her dog.

A concerned friend rushed the young Australian, who now lives in Split, Croatia, to hospital. But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

Previously, doctors had not taken her concerns seriously, but this time they urgently ordered scans.

ThanMonica remembered being told by a surgeon that she had a huge tumor that blocked 90 percent of her colon.

When she was wheeled into the operating room for emergency surgery in January 2024, Monica arranged for a friend to feed her dog, who was waiting for her at home.

“At that time I still thought I would be home in the morning to walk him,” she told FEMAIL.

“I didn’t even call my parents. They were on a cruise. So I called my sister and told her I was having surgery and I would talk to her in the morning.”

Monica Ackermann was only 31 when she was diagnosed with colon cancer

An hour and a half later she realized that the situation might be more serious than she thought.

“At 10 p.m., there were 25 nurses and doctors in the room. They told me they don’t see this kind of thing in young people,” said Monica, a director in the real estate and construction industry.

‘These kinds of things’ turned out to be stage four colon cancer.

Although colon cancer in young, healthy adults is still considered “rare” and “shocking,” it is becoming more common.

According to experts, the number of cases among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s has increased by 50 percent in just thirty years.

Data from JAMA Surgery shows that the number of colon cancer cases in people aged 20 to 34 is expected to increase by 90 percent by 2030.

While acknowledging that there are likely “multiple” contributing factors, top experts have suggested that a common infection in children could be partly responsible for the rise in young cases of the disease, known in the US as colon cancer.

In an interview with The Health Foundation, Dr Charles Swanton, clinical director at Cancer Research UK, spoke of ‘new data’ showing that a specific type of E. coli bacteria, acquired in childhood, ‘may contribute to at least some of the processes that give rise to cancer.’

Alarming evidence of this is provided by her fellow cancer specialist, Dr. Kimmie Ng, an American specialist in young-onset colorectal cancer. She noted that many of her young cases are in fact children.

The Australian woman was diagnosed in Split, Croatia, where she had lived two years earlier

Data from JAMA Surgery shows that the number of colon cancer cases is expected to increase by 90 percent in people between the ages of 20 and 34.

Monica has made friends with many young women diagnosed with the disease, confirming the shocking data.

The young Australian woke up in pain after the operation and had a stoma – an opening in the abdomen through which bowel movements are allowed.

“They had stapled me back together with huge staples. I was told there were going to be some tough decisions to be made in the next few weeks,” she recalled.

After her first surgery, doctors told Monica she had three months to start chemo, so her first step was to freeze her eggs. She dreams of starting a family one day.

Originally from Sydney, Monica had settled in Croatia two years earlier after falling in love with the lifestyle during a visit to the UK.

Friends and family wanted her to return to her old self after the devastating diagnosis, but she remains incredibly optimistic.

“I just love my life here. I live a quiet life in a beautiful beachfront condo with a view of the beach,” she said.

‘I don’t think I’m going to die from this. I’m doing everything the doctors tell me.’

She jokes that she must at least outlive her dog, because “no one will love him like she does.”

She said she had not felt ill before her diagnosis, but had been to the doctor over the past six months because of recurring stabbing pains in her stomach.

In August 2024, the now 32-year-old optimistic woman underwent her second major surgery: a lymph node dissection and removal of her stoma.

She plans to fight cancer with everything she has in the future.

“My time is not up yet. I will do everything I can now to improve myself so that in two years my time is still not up,” she said.

Monica says that people treat cancer patients as if they are very ill, but that she usually does not experience it that way.

She was “healthier than ever” in the years leading up to her diagnosis and, when she’s not undergoing chemotherapy, she still feels strong.

“I am active and healthy, I walk the dog and do about 15,000 steps every day,” she said.

Monica admitted that she was still in shock over her diagnosis months after her first surgery.

She felt healthy and was experiencing some fatigue, but she assumed this was due to her busy lifestyle.

Monica says she must survive her dog – a rescue dog she got when she moved to Croatia

In the six months prior to her emergency hospital visit, she had been to the doctor four times for stomach pain.

But they had never suspected cancer.

“I assumed that because I had been eating healthy, maybe I had gotten too much fiber or something,” she said.

‘After a few days it disappeared.’

The next time she went to a gynecologist for scans, everything was normal.

In the months before she became so fit, she took part in a boxing match

Colon cancer can cause you to have blood in your stool, a change in your bowel movements, a lump in your bowel that can cause an obstruction. Some people also suffer from weight loss as a result of these symptoms

She hopes she can raise awareness of the symptoms of colon cancer so people can find answers faster than she did.

“I also don’t want to blame the Croatian health care system because I have been inundated with messages from people all over the world who have experienced similar things,” she said.

She wants doctors to consider offering young women colonoscopy to rule out cancer before it becomes an emergency.

People under 50 with stage four colorectal cancer have a 20 percent five-year survival rate. Monica was initially given two years, but rejected it immediately.

Post-surgery scans show that Monica is now cancer-free.

Warning signs of colon cancer include bleeding, changes in bowel habits, weight loss, fatigue, pain or lumps, and a bowel obstruction.