Stage 4 cancer patient warns overlooked minor signs can mask a fatal disease

Susan Schmidt, a 45-year-old mother of two from Brisbane, thought she was just tired, but it turned out to be something much worse. In September 2023, she was told she had stage 4 bowel cancer, which is a terrible disease that can’t be cured.

Susan says she missed the early signs because she thought they weren’t serious. “The goal now is to stay healthy for as long as I can.” She told The Daily Mail, “I’ll probably start chemotherapy again after my next trip abroad.”

She wants other people to learn from what happened to her and stress how important it is to pay attention to bowel health. “People don’t talk about how they go to the bathroom. Who does? That’s one of the problems with bowel cancer. “People don’t sound the alarm soon enough.”

She was always tired, which was her first sign, just a few months before she was diagnosed. “I’d take my daughter to rowing and then have to stop on the way home to sleep. That’s not normal. That was a sign that something was wrong, but I ignored it.

Susan got constipated for the first time while on a trip to France. She blamed it on the rich food and the travel. Later, when she got back to Brisbane, she had terrible stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea that lasted for hours.

“The pain was worse than giving birth.” I thought my horse gave me salmonella. She remembered, “At the hospital, they told me I was fine. No one was looking for cancer.”

Doctors didn’t know for sure that it was stage 4 bowel cancer until more tests were done. Now Susan is determined to get the word out. “Even if your blood work comes back normal and they say it’s stress or diet, trust your gut and keep asking questions.”

She started The Floozie Foundation to help cancer patients and their families, and she still tells her story to help save lives.