Monica Ackermann hadn’t been able to go to the toilet for two days when the crippling abdominal pain started.
The 31-year-old was in so much agony she could barely make it down the stairs of her home to walk her dog.
A concerned friend rushed the young Australian – who now lives in Split, Croatia – to hospital, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.
Doctors hadn’t taken her concerns seriously previously, but this time, they ordered urgent scans.
The next thing Monica knew she had a surgeon telling her she had a huge tumour blocking 90 per cent of her colon.
As she was wheeled into the pre-operative area for emergency surgery in January, 2024, Monica arranged for a friend to feed her dog who was waiting for her back home.
‘At this point I still thought I would be home to walk him in the morning,’ she told FEMAIL.
‘I didn’t even call my parents. They were on a cruise. So I called my sister and said I was having surgery and would talk to her in the morning.’
Monica Ackermann was just 31 when she was diagnosed with colon cancer
An hour-and-a-half later she realised things could be a little more serious than she thought.
‘By 10pm there were 25 nurses and doctors in the room. They told me they don’t see this kind of thing in young people,’ Monica, a director in the property and construction industry, said.
‘This kind of thing’ ended up being stage four bowel cancer.
And though it’s still considered ‘rare’ and ‘shocking’ for young, healthy adults to get bowel cancer, it is becoming much more common.
Experts claim there has been a 50 per cent increase in cases of people aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s in just 30 years.
Data from JAMA Surgery showed colon cancer is expected to rise by 90 per cent in people ages 20 to 34 by 2030.
While acknowledging that there is likely ‘several’ contributing factors, the top specialists have suggested that a common childhood infection could be partly to blame for rising young cases of the disease, known as colon cancer in the US.
In an interview with The Health Foundation, Dr Charles Swanton, Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK, spoke of ’emerging data’ showing that a specific type of the bacteria E. coli contracted in childhood could ‘contribute at least to some of the cancer initiation processes.’
Alarming evidence of this is offered by fellow cancer specialist, Dr Kimmie Ng, US specialist in young-onset colorectal cancer, who noted that many of her young cases are in fact in children.
The Australian woman was diagnosed in Split, Croatia, where she lived for two years beforehand
Data from JAMA Surgery showed colon cancer is expected to rise by 90 percent in people ages 20 to 34
Monica has formed friendships with many young women who have been diagnosed with the disease, reflecting the shocking data.
The young Australian woke up from surgery in agony and had a stoma – an opening in the abdomen to allow bowel movements.
‘They had stapled me back together with huge staples. I was told that there would have to be some tough decisions over the next few weeks,’ she recalled.
Following her first operation doctors told Monica had three months to start chemo so her first step was to freeze her eggs. She has dreams of starting a family one day.
Originally from Sydney, Monica had set herself up in Croatia two years prior after falling in love with the lifestyle during a visit when she lived in the UK.
Friends and family wanted her to move home following the devastating diagnosis but she remains incredibly optimistic.
‘I just love my life here. I live a slow life in a beautiful beachside apartment and have a beach view,’ she said.
‘In my opinion I won’t die from this. I do everything the doctors tell me.’
She jokes she needs to outlive her dog at least, as ‘no one will love him like she does’.
She said she didn’t feel sick before her diagnosis but had been to the doctor over recurring stabbing pains in her stomach in the six months before
In August, 2024, the up-beat now 32-year-old went in for her second major surgery: a lymphodectomy and to have her stoma reversed.
Going forward, she plans to fight the cancer with everything she’s got.
‘My time isn’t up. I will do everything now to make myself better so that in two years my time still isn’t up.’ she said.
Monica said while people treat cancer patients as though they are super sick, she doesn’t feel that way the majority of the time.
She was ‘the healthiest’ she had ever been in the years leading up to her diagnosis and when she isn’t actively doing chemo she still feels strong.
‘I am active and healthy, I walk the dog and do about 15,000 steps every day,’ she said.
Monica admitted she was still in shock over her diagnosis months after her first surgery.
She had been feeling healthy and suffering some fatigue but assumed it was down to her busy lifestyle.
Monica says she needs to outlive her dog – a rescue she got when she moved to Croatia
In the six months before the emergency hospital visit she had gone to see doctors about about stomach pain on four occasions.
But they had never suspected cancer.
‘I assumed because I had been eating well that maybe I had too much fibre or something,’ she said.
‘It went away after a couple of days.’
The next time she saw a gynecologist who did scans – everything came back normal.
In the months before she was so fit she took part in a boxing match
Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss as a result of these symptoms
She is hoping she can spread awareness about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer so they can find answers faster than she did.
‘I don’t want to blame the Croatian health system either as I have been inundated with messages from people all over the world who have had similar things happen,’ she said.
She wants doctors to consider giving young women colonoscopies to rule anything like cancer out, before it gets to an emergency stage.
People under 50 with stage four colorectal cancer have a 20 per cent five-year survival rate. Monica was initially given two years but dismissed that immediately.
Monica’s post-op scans show she is now cancer-free.
Warning signs of bowel cancer include bleeding, change in bowel habits, weight loss, tiredness, pain or lumps and a bowel obstruction.
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