A mother who was ultimately diagnosed with colon cancer has revealed that doctors initially dismissed her red-flag symptoms as haemorrhoids, and she is now urging everyone to be aware of the warning signs. Bronwyn Tagg first noticed something was wrong shortly after giving birth to her son, Austin, who is now two years old.
Initial Symptoms Dismissed
The 27-year-old began experiencing bleeding when using the toilet, which she says she reported to her GP. “They didn’t examine me but said it was most probably piles after having a vaginal birth,” said Bronwyn, from Cambridge. “I feel like if the doctor had taken the time then I would have been diagnosed earlier. I think the NHS is so pressed that GPs don’t have time to explore all of the possibilities of the symptoms.”
“I’m angry but I can’t dwell on it. After that, I started to have quite frequent diarrhoea so I had a gluten tolerance test, which came back negative. In the beginning of 2024, I started to get pretty horrendous tummy aches leaving me doubled over, unable to move kind of tummy aches.”
Further Investigations
She returned to her GP, suspecting ovarian cysts as she had them previously. An ultrasound revealed a cyst on her left ovary, but tests for ovarian cancer were normal. She was referred to gynaecology for the pain. In February 2025, a gynaecologist suggested it could be endometriosis and arranged an MRI.
The MRI showed a 40mm lesion in her rectum. Bronwyn was urgently referred on a two-week cancer pathway and underwent a colonoscopy in May 2025, where doctors removed the entire polyp. “Two weeks later, I had a phone call whilst doing my shopping. They asked me to come in the following day for my results and to bring someone for support,” she said.
“I instantly knew it was bad news. I felt so numb doing the rest of the shopping, my 18-month-old sat in the trolley just thinking ‘what am I going to do?’. We were called into the room and it was really quiet and sombre and that’s when the consultant said ‘I’m really sorry to have to tell you that the polyp we removed was cancer’. The rest of the appointment is a complete blur, I didn’t take anything in.”
Surgery and Chemotherapy
Bronwyn, who is also mother to Josie, five, opted to have surgery to remove part of her rectum and have a stoma fitted. A consultant told her bluntly that the cancer had already knocked a few years off her life. Six weeks later, three out of 12 lymph nodes removed during surgery tested positive, classifying her cancer as stage three.
She required chemotherapy, battling exhaustion, nausea, nerve pain, and emotional strain while caring for her young children. “Chemotherapy was a lot more challenging mentally than it was physically. Don’t get me wrong it had been incredibly tough physically too,” she said. “I struggled with exhaustion, nausea, and peripheral neuropathy and pain. And I found it so hard hyping myself up to go in for treatment that was going to make me feel rubbish. Chemo made being a mum quite hard.”
“Josie started school in September and I started chemotherapy the week after. Whilst my husband is amazing at supporting where he can, he has had to continue working hard earning money so I still had to do the majority of childcare. Friends and family have helped with school runs, dinners, and play dates.”
Explaining to Her Daughter
One of the hardest parts was explaining her illness to her daughter Josie. “We tried not to convey that we were scared. We started off by telling her I needed an operation to remove something that wasn’t very nice from mummy's belly. When I woke up with a stoma, I really wasn’t sure how she was going to take it. Thankfully the stoma nurses at the hospital are beyond amazing and supportive. They provided me with a teddy and a storybook which helped explain mummy’s new body.”
“She was very unsure at first, asked all sorts of curious questions as any five-year-old would like ‘does it hurt? Why do you have a bag? Why does it look like that?’ And I was just really honest with her. I change and empty my bag in front of her and will shower with her in the room. I think it’s good for her to realise not all bodies look the same and that’s ok.”
“Even now, nine months post surgery, she still asks questions about how it works. When I started chemotherapy, I explained to her that I was going to have some very important medicine at the hospital. I said I would have to go every two weeks for one day and that the medicine would make me tired and feel a bit sick. But I explained it was important for me to have it so that the bad stuff in mummy’s tummy hopefully doesn’t come back. She’s been amazing throughout all of this. So helpful and brave.”
“I only recently told her that I had cancer. I think I really wanted to protect her to begin with but really it’s about being open and honest with your children. She asked me if I was going to die and Glen found that quite tricky.”
Looking Forward
Bronwyn has now completed chemotherapy and is awaiting results from a recent scan to determine whether she is in remission. “I’m really hopeful that we’re done but I know that we won’t ever go back to how life was before. It’s a new normal. A normal where we now understand just how fragile life is. I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.”
After the sad death of Married At First Sight star Mel Schilling last month, Bronwyn is sharing her story to raise awareness. “With the recent passing of Mel Schilling, I know that being in remission doesn’t always mean it’s done and finished. I think this whole crazy year has taught me to value my own time, to be a bit more selfish, say no to things I don’t want to waste my energy with and to say yes to everything that excites me. I plan on making some incredible memories with my children over the next new years.”
Bronwyn is urging others to persist if something doesn’t feel right. “For anyone noticing any symptoms, I would say go and get them checked with the GP. If they are disregarded because of their age, they need to persist. Early diagnosis saves lives.”
