Mari Isdale was just 31 when one day during her shift at Tameside Hospital she was rushed to the A&E department after suddenly experiencing crippling stomach pains.
A scan found a tumour “the size of a watermelon” in her abdomen and the fit and healthy physician was told she had stage four bowel cancer which had spread to her ovaries.
As part of her treatment Mari, a fertility doctor, had to have part of her bowel as well as both of her ovaries removed, which sadly destroyed her dreams of having children of her own.
The now 42-year-old faced four major operations to remove multiple tumours from various locations in her abdomen followed by chemotherapy and targeted therapy drug cetuximab, which Cancer Research UK helped develop.
Mari, who lives with husband Babur Ahmed and their sausage dog Angus, is sharing her story during Bowel Cancer Awareness Month in support of a Cancer Research UK drive to help save more lives from bowel cancer - the UK’s second most common cause of cancer death.
This April she is urging people across the region to donate monthly to the charity - the largest funder of bowel cancer research in the UK - to help fund the next big breakthrough at cruk.org/donate.
Mari said: “I remember when they first scanned me to see what was causing the pain I saw this huge mass the size of a watermelon, I’ve no idea how it was hiding in there, but I knew straight away that it was bad. It was very unexpected as I was healthy and I had no family history of cancer. Despite all this, I still found myself with advanced bowel cancer.
“Every precious beautiful day of the next 10 years of life I’ve had since then is thanks to Cancer Research UK as they funded research studies into the targeted therapy drug I was given during its early phases and development. I was able to go on to live an amazing, fulfilling, active and happy life despite cancer. Thanks to research I have been able to spend lots of special time with my family and loved ones making special memories.
“I have been able to travel and have adventures whilst ticking items off my YOLO (You Only Live Once) list having wonderful experiences all over the world such as flying in a helicopter with my mum and sister over New York, a family trip to see the pyramids of Egypt and hot air ballooning with my husband over the fairy chimneys in Turkey. I now don’t wait for plans; on my good days I really live life.
“I was until recently able to work again and thereby help my patients on their fertility journeys. I can empathise so much more with that they are going through now I fully understand how they feel. And it gives me so much joy to able to help people with becoming parents, even more so now that I can’t have children myself.”
After a brief period of remission in 2018, the disease unfortunately spread to her lymph nodes and Mari has been back on treatment since Christmas 2020.
However, a decade since her initial diagnosis and nearly 200 rounds of chemotherapy later, she is still living life to the full as much as she can.
Now Mari is lending her support to a new £5.5m initiative, part funded by Cancer Research UK, which is made up of a newly formed world leading research team that aims to transform bowel cancer care for people like her.
The CRC-STARS initiative will bring together over 40 research experts from across the UK, Spain, Italy and Belgium to find kinder, better treatments for the disease, which kills 16,800 people in the UK every year including around 2,000 in the North West alone. Joining forces will enable them to use their combined expertise across multiple research areas, and pair clinical trial data with cutting-edge technology.
CRC-STARS is jointly funded by Cancer Research UK (£2m), the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK (£2m), philanthropic support from Bjorn Saven CBE and Inger Saven (£1m), and the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (FCAECC, €600,000 [~£500,000]).
Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Michelle Mitchell, said: “For over 100 years, Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have been working to beat bowel cancer, and this project is one of the most comprehensive for bowel cancer that we have ever supported. Together with our funding partners – the Bowelbabe Fund, Bjorn and Inger Saven and the FCAECC – we can empower the CRC-STARS team to speed up the development of personalised treatment for people living with bowel cancer, bringing us closer to a world where people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
The Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre in Manchester is set to receive more than £550,000 as part of the initiative. Dr Florent Mouliere is leading the research team there, he said: “We are very excited to be involved in this quite unique programme in Europe due to the size and network of researchers. Over the next five years our dedicated team will analyse blood and plasma samples from colorectal cancer patients collected at different time points of treatment then look at DNA in order to identity specific patterns to discover how they resist or respond to treatment. The advantage of liquid biopsy, which is less invasive than a tissue biopsy, is the capacity to be able to take multiple samples from the same patient, so that we can start to understand the evolution of cancer and create the next generation of more personalised treatment.”
For Mari, progress like this can’t come soon enough. She added: ”This project is very special as it gives a lot of hope for the future of cancer treatments. I think it really will make a difference to patients like me because at the moment we are offered a range of treatment, and we hope for the best, but we don’t know if they will work. But if we can understand how individuals and their cancer biology behaves, we can target their specific type of cancer much better and hopefully that means treatment would be more successful, which means time with our loved ones, time to live and time to enjoy life and who knows maybe one day a cure.”
For bowel cancer detected at the earliest stage, when treatment is more likely to be successful, around 9 in 10 people in England survive their disease for five years or more. But at the latest stage, this falls to around 1 in 10.
Mari wants to see a commitment to diagnosing more cancers earlier in the Government’s forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England. And she’s urging supporters to sign Cancer Research UK’s open letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, urging him to seize this once in a decade opportunity to transform cancer survival for all.
Cancer Research UK spokesperson for the North West Jemma Humphreys added: “Spotting bowel cancer early saves lives. Research is key, but so is awareness. It’s vital that we put any awkwardness aside when it comes to talking about our poo and bowel habits. The most important thing people can do is be aware of what is normal for them and speak to their doctor if something isn’t quite right. It can make all the difference.
“As the largest funder of bowel cancer research in the UK we’ve helped identify risk factors for the disease, developed many of the drugs used to treat it and are investigating why more people are getting bowel cancer at a younger age. But, our work isn’t done yet. So, this Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, we hope people will get behind Mari and show their support - whether they donate to our life-saving research or sign our open letter to Government for a National Cancer Plan that delivers real change.”
Support the future of cancer research at cruk.org/donate
FACT FILE: SMASHING POO TABOOS
Every year, around 5,300 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the North West. Inspired by the legacy of Dame Deborah James, who lost her life to the disease, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK is displaying posters in the charity’s shops this April, encouraging people to speak more openly about their poo and bowel habits.
It comes as new data reveals that of people surveyed in the North West:
- Almost a third (31%) said that they are embarrassed or uncomfortable talking about changes in their poo or bowel habits to a doctor.
- Almost half (45%) said that they are uncomfortable talking to a friend about their poo or bowel habits.
- Nearly 4 in 10 (38%) also said they are uncomfortable talking to a family member about their poo or bowel habits.
Cancer Research UK hopes that by normalising talking about poo more, people will feel more comfortable and empowered to speak to a health professional if they spot something unusual for them.
Common symptoms of bowel cancer can include a change in your normal bowel habits (such as needing to go for a poo more often, looser poo or constipation); bleeding from the bottom or blood in poo; unexplained tiredness or breathlessness; losing weight without trying to and tummy pain (especially if it doesn’t go away) or a lump in the stomach.
But the most important thing people can do is listen to their body and, no matter the change, speak to their doctor if something isn’t normal for them.