When Ebony Gaylor was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 38, she found it hard to believe that it was happening to her. As a fit and active executive in Melbourne, she initially dismissed the discomfort in her gut as something minor—perhaps too much gluten or irritable bowel syndrome. She tried various remedies like increasing exercise, cutting back on coffee, or eliminating bread from her diet, but nothing seemed to help.
“I had not planned on getting cancer. It’s not even that it was an old person’s disease — I didn’t think it was a ‘me’ disease,” she shared with AAP.
The news that she had cancer came as a shock, and it wasn’t just about undergoing treatment. For Ms Gaylor, who is also a mother, it meant juggling her health with the demands of work and family life. The treatment process was grueling: chemotherapy, radiation, colostomy bags, and surgery that removed part of her bowel, lymph nodes, and rectum.
“It’s not just about turning up for chemo and radiation? It affects every aspect of life,” she said. “Fertility, finances, your relationships, how much you can engage with your child — it just casts such a long shadow.”
Ms Gaylor is part of a growing group of Australians under the age of 50 being diagnosed with bowel cancer. Australia has some of the highest rates of early-onset bowel cancer globally. Over the past two decades, the number of cases among people aged 20 to 29 has more than doubled, while those aged 30 to 39 have seen a tripling in diagnoses.
Experts are still trying to understand what is driving this alarming trend. Possible factors include microplastics, stress, and other environmental influences. However, Julia Freckelton, a bowel cancer expert, believes there is no single cause behind the rise.
“We still don’t fully understand why bowel cancer is rising so rapidly in younger Australians,” she told AAP.
Current evidence suggests that the increase may be linked to a combination of lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors. These include diet, obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and changes in gut health.
What is clear is that traditional treatment regimes are not always suitable for young people who have to manage their health alongside work, family, and other responsibilities. Ms Gaylor described feeling like a square peg in a round hole during her treatment.
“Having a young family, I’m trying to fit in appointments around work meetings, school drop-off and pick-up, and other family stuff,” she said.
Dr Freckelton is leading a new trial program called ORBIT, which aims to provide more flexible support options for young patients. This includes telehealth services, after-hours appointments, fertility preservation, mental health care, and long-term survivorship planning.
Ms Gaylor emphasized that younger cancer survivors often face decades of physical and emotional challenges after treatment. “With traditional treatment, you’re deciding if you’re OK to be infertile, if you’re OK to have significant portions of your insides removed, if you’re OK to not have good bowel function for the rest of your life,” she said.
“How full-on the treatment is and what it leaves you with afterwards is not built for a 38-year-old woman.”
There is a pressing need for increased funding to support research into the changing demographics of bowel cancer patients and to develop more age-appropriate models of care.
Ms Gaylor has been cancer-free for several years and has since moved outside of Melbourne to a slower-paced and lower-stress environment. She remains optimistic despite her experience.
“Cancer really sucks and nobody should get it — but I don’t think it’s hopeless,” she said. “We have so many brilliant clinicians and researchers, particularly here in Australia. We just need to resource them to do the research and the clinical trials that are needed.”
