Beth Purvis, a 39-year-old mother of two from Essex experienced anal bleeding, a difference in her bowel movements, occasional vomiting (after eating) and stomach discomfort. So Beth decided to visit her GP. Her GP informed Beth that she was suffering from IBS and an anal fissure, but due to her age (being only 39 years old) she was told that she shouldn’t be concerned.  

Unfortunately, this was not the case, and two years later in 2016, Beth made a visit to A&E expressing symptoms of what she thought was an anal prolapse. It soon transpired that this was a large tumour in her rectum, and her earlier symptoms had been of bowel cancer.  

At the point of correct diagnosis, Beth’s cancer had reached stage 4. In November 2017, due to the delay in diagnosis, Beth was delivered the devastating news that cancer had already spread. Despite the damning prognosis, doctors managed to remove the nodules, however, they have been clear that they expect the cancer to return. 

Despite being failed by so many, Beth has remained incredibly positive and strong in the face of adversity. She has used her own harrowing experiences to help support others facing bowel cancer diagnosis and treatment. Beth carries out most her campaigning through her Facebook page, “BowelWarrior” and helps promote fundraisers, charity work and education using her experiences to help others.  

Sunita Thind is a Bedford born Derby based published female, Asian British BAME poet and writer that has had a debut collection of multicultural poetry that focuses on living between two cultures, British and Punjabi. Sunita is workshop facilitator, speaker and performance poet. She has had poetry and short stories published in various literary magazines, ezines and journals.

She has dabbled in many things including being a model, primary and secondary school teacher and trained as a make up artist. Being an Ovarian Cancer survivor she is grateful to have survived it but I am not in remission yet, she is a campaigner and fundraiser for related charities.

She also loves to sing and take singing lessons and is married and has a beautiful, male platinum white Samoyed called Ghost.

– Written by Ollie Wiltshire

Where to begin…probably best at the start. As a 17 year old, from a nice area & going to a good school everything was pretty much plain sailing. My biggest worries were was my upcoming A Levels, passing my driving test & what everyone was doing on the weekend. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But, that all got quite quickly thrown out the window when we got the news; Dad Has Cancer. I wish there was a softer way to put it, but unfortunately thats the way life is. I had suspected something was up when dad had to go in for an operation & a week or two later was still in the hospital. And not long after that my suspicions were not only confirmed, but obliterated by the truth. 

It has since been 5 years; in which I completed my A Levels; Got into Uni; Completed my degree; Making headway in a career I absolutely love – and I am lucky enough that my dad has been there every single step of the way. But those 5 years haven’t by any stretch of the imagination been a smooth ride…

That’s why I wanted to start this conversation..so through written blogs, vlogs, pods & all of that social media that none of us really need, I want to try and shed some light in the hope that it might just let someone else feel like they aren’t alone in what they’re going through.

I collapsed in my bathtub and was rushed to hospital on 27th Dec 2003. I was diagnosed with Acute lymphocytic leukaemia at 18. I had chemo and radiotherapy.

My brother was my donor. We were 98.9% accurate. I had my stem cell transplant the day before my birthday on 30th July 2004. So, I have two birthdays lol and I celebrate both the sameI had Gvhd in my mouth which I’m still healing from.

I was also diagnosed with Guillain barre syndrome which is very similar to a stroke in 2013 whilst on holiday in Ghana ??. I had basically gone through all I did before with my leukaemia. This time I was left paralysed in my arms. I lost muscle and the moto nerves in my fingers. So, doing zips and buttons are very difficult. My voice was affected as the muscles around my voice box weakened. So I’m left with swallowing issues. I’ve got drop foot in my right foot and my fingers don’t straighten lol. 

I celebrated my 16th year cancer free 30th July 2020 and I can’t wait to hit my 20th anniversary. Bring it on!

The 20th of September 2012 is a day that I will never forget, I cycled into work got changed and thought it was going to be a normal day…….how very wrong I would be.

I felt a little under the weather, so took a Paracetamol and had a cup of tea, however, it didn’t have any affect. I then collapsed and was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, it was quite scary but going fast in the ambulance was pretty cool. After a whole load of tests I was told that I had either Leukaemia or Lymphoma. 

I have been through several challenges in the 5 years that followed, divorce, 6 bereavements in 7 months, a major breakdown, depression, anxiety, going to a very dark place to setting up a charity walk called Kiwis Kick Away Cancer Walk, which ran in 2016 and 2018, raising over £10,000 to date. I also decided to use my experiences to help others, doing motivational videos and writing blogs about the challenges I faced and overcame. I am also in the process of writing a book about my challenges between 2012 – 2017, called Leukaemia, Baxter and I.

I want to now use what has happened to me and make it into something positive. I am a proud and passionate Scot and I am doing my bit to “leave the world a little better than I found it”