Colorectal cancer at 39: I was bleeding, but nothing that I would have been worried about, and I felt OK. I thought it was piles

Antoinette O’Halloran was diagnosed with bowel cancer before her 40th birthday and is sharing her story to increase education around early detection of cancer

Antoinette O’Halloran with her dog Sutty. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Liadán Hynes

Antoinette O’Halloran was 39 when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the summer of 2019. By the time she received the diagnosis, she had been experiencing symptoms for about a year.

“I was bleeding. Not loads. Straining and blood. But nothing that I would have been worried about. Piles was the first thing that came to my head. It started about a year before. By the end of the year, I suppose I was panicking.”