1 in 5 new diagnoses of colorectal cancer now occur in people under 50, and 4 out of 5 of those are sadly not detected until it’s reached advanced stages (stage 2, 3, or 4). Colon cancer screening age has dropped to 45 due to the dramatic increase in rates – but many much younger people need to be aware of the easily identifiable symptoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? Because Kalei Martin is 28 and had been experiencing a lot of symptoms that should have been red flags for cancer. Sadly, her doctors didn’t recognize it until it had already spread. She was young, healthy, and it was chalked up to changes due to pregnancy and other health issues. But in reality – the signs were very clear.
Sadly, by the time someone did recognize the symptoms, she had stage 2 rectal cancer (T3 tumor) and, one year later, stage 4 with metastasis to her lungs (creating a 13-20% 5 year survival rate). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her story is becoming increasingly common; and many doctors don’t even think of checking because young healthy people shouldn’t have cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s worth listening to how what she thought was simple symptoms were actually progression of disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n