Surviving Bowel Cancer

Anyone who is diagnosed with bowel cancer or colon cancer, as it's also known, may well, in the back of their mind, think they have been handed a death sentence This is a natural reaction when diagnosed with a disease that everyone fears.

Given the right circumstances, a good percentage of people do survive bowel cancer but there are a number of factors that influence why that is so.

Early detection is a major factor in surviving. The earlier bowel cancer is detected the better your chances of survival.

The treatment you receive and even which doctor treats you can have a big influence.

However, in my research in speaking to long term survivors I found that a positive attitude was a big factor in surviving,
We've all heard about being positive and good things will happen to us. Weren't we always told to be positive when things aren't going our way?

Let me give you a quick excerpt from my book. It was written by Robert, an oncologist, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer himself:

"As a doctor, I tell all my new patients that although cancer can be very aggressive, so to can the treatment of cancer. It is a matter of fact that a good, strong, positive attitude can go a long way to helping anyone win the battle with cancer. That having been said, as a patient I would tell people that are newly diagnosed with bowel cancer, to find an inner strength. Grasp all of your energy within your body and make yourself a commitment that you are going to cure the cancer. Accept any help that you can get along the way. Fighting cancer is not an easily achieved feat. It will take every ounce of motivation right out of you some days."

Powerful words and ones that were spoken by a man who not only treated bowel cancer patients but became one himself. He knew the power of the mind and the results it could achieve.

My journey with this project started when a friend phoned me one weekend and calmly told me he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer. I was quite shocked but he seemed to be resigned to his circumstances and was prepared to give it all it took to get well and survive.

After our conversation and I put the phone down I started to research what bowel cancer was all about. I was curious. The more I read about bowel cancer the more I found out about the disease. I wanted to know about the treatments, the survival rates and a lot more besides. However, I couldn't find any information about long term survivors and how they had coped throughout their treatment and what strategies they used.

That's when my real research started. I wanted to know how people did survive bowel cancer or colon cancer as it's sometimes referred to. Did they just go through their treatment like zombies hoping for the best? Or, did they actively take part in their treatment and push for answers.

To me it was a mystery. Fortunately, I had never been in that sort of position and therefore could only imagine how people thought and acted when diagnosed with bowel cancer. I needed to find out more about these survivors.

I trawled through forums on the subject but later realized long term survivors would have moved on and wouldn't be contributing to forums anymore. I knew there were plenty of bowel cancer survivors out there I just had to find them.

Eventually I did, and managed to collect together stories of ten people who had survived. It makes fascinating reading but the one thread is their positive attitude and how it carried them through their treatment. They weren't prepared to lose the fight.

Once these stories had been written down I realized, if I had bowel cancer I would only be too happy to read something positive. Read real stories about how people had survived bowel cancer and what they had done to win the battle. This is also the feedback I received from some people currently undergoing treatment.

To find out more you can visit my website to read about what I've done. Hopefully, it may help you or a loved one through the tough times bowel cancer will throw your way. There's quite a lot of information about bowel cancer on my site and hopefully it will answer some of the questions you may have.

Good luck.

Roger Cuff

Surviving Bowel Cancer