Young bowel cancer patient shares 5 warning signs she dismissed

A woman who developed a change in her sleeping habits has urged others not to ignore the worrying health symptom.

A young bowel cancer patient has shared five symptoms of the life-threatening disease she ignored before being diagnosed.

Radwah Oda, a single mother from Houston, Texas, is sounding the alarm after dismissing early warning signs of the common cancer, also known as colorectal or colon cancer.

The young mum has been documenting her battle with the condition, which affects about 15,000 Aussies every year, and recent shared a video listing the signs she missed in a bid to help others.

The clip has since racked up 2.3 million views, and in it Ms Oda explained why she brushed off the symptoms, before being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, the New York Post reports.

“If you have any of these symptoms, please don’t be concerned, but go see a doctor. Advocate for yourself,” she explained on TikTok.

Radwah Oda was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in August 2021. Picture: TikTok/@radwah.oda

Thin stools

Ms Oda said one of the first warning signs was a subtle, but troubling change in her bowel movements.

Her stool suddenly became thin and pencil-like every time she used the bathroom. “My excuse at the time was that it must be constipation,” she recalled.

While experts say occasional narrow stools aren’t necessarily cause for concern, consistent changes in stool shape — especially if they’re flat or ribbon-like — can be a sign of narrowing or obstruction in the colon, often linked to colorectal cancer.

But that wasn’t the only red flag Ms Oda said she ignored. She also noticed blood in her stool but chalked it up to haemorrhoids.

Blood in the stool can sometimes be linked to less serious conditions, but it’s also a classic symptom of bowel cancer that experts warn should never be brushed off. In fact, a 2024 study highlighted blood in stool as one of the top two “red flag” symptoms of early-onset colon cancer, especially in younger patients.

Changes in bowel movements is a common symptom of the disease. Picture: iStock

Ms Oda also started feeling like her bowel wasn’t fully emptying, no matter how many times she went to the bathroom.

“Each time I would use the restroom, I would feel like I still needed to go,” she told her viewers. “I would keep pushing and pushing but nothing would come out. I was never satisfied.”

Once again, she wrote it off as just constipation. But in reality, this feeling — called tenesmus — is a common symptom of colorectal cancer. A tumour in the rectum or lower colon can cause a constant sensation of needing to go, even when the bowel is empty.

The tumour can also irritate nerves in the rectal wall, sending false signals to the brain that the bowel needs to be emptied.

Unexplained pain

While abdominal discomfort is a known symptom of bowel cancer, unexplained pain elsewhere in the body can signal that cancer has spread.

For Ms Oda, she suddenly felt pain in her lower right side near her breast. “I just assumed my bra was too tight, even though it was just on one side,” she said.

In reality, this pain would turn out to be a sign that her cancer had metastasised to her liver.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Australia. Picture: iStock

Chronic fatigue

Amid all the changes in her bowel movements and unexplained pain, Ms Oda said she was “always tired”.

“I had extreme chronic fatigue regardless of how many hours of sleep I slept at night,” she shared. “I would still need to take a nap a few times during the day and nothing really helped.”

She said she first noticed this symptom during the coronavirus pandemic, writing it off as her body adjusting to working from home. In truth, her fatigue was caused by cancer cells using up her body’s energy.

People with colon cancer can also feel tired due to blood loss from polyps or tumours bleeding into the digestive tract, potentially leading to iron-deficiency anaemia — a condition that causes persistent fatigue.

Unexplained pain in different parts of the body is sometimes a sign that cancer has spread. Picture: iStock

Other signs

In a separate video, she shared even more symptoms she experienced in the two weeks leading up to her diagnosis in August, 2021. These included sudden weight loss, loss of appetite and constant stomach pains.

Up until an hour before doctors broke the news about her cancer, Ms Oda dismissed these symptoms and her inability to keep food or liquid down as a “really bad stomach bug”.

She’s gone on to gain a large following as she shares the reality of living with stage 4 colorectal cancer, the fourth most common cancer in the US and Australia.

In 2024, around 5000 Australians lost their lives to the disease.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Young bowel cancer patient shares 5 warning signs she dismissed