When a woman’s body sends distress signals, we often dismiss them as side effects of being busy, stressed, or getting older. Susan Schmidt from Brisbane, Australia did exactly that—and she paid a devastating price. Today, she’s sharing her story in hopes that others won’t make the same mistake.
The Warning Sign Everyone Overlooks
It started with exhaustion. Not the kind of tired you feel after a long day—the kind that doesn’t go away no matter how much you rest. Susan, a physiotherapist and mother of two, found herself needing a 40-minute nap after a short 15-minute drive to her daughter’s rowing lesson. “That’s not normal,” she now says. “That was a warning sign, but I brushed it off.”
She attributed the crushing fatigue to something manageable: early menopause. It seemed logical. She was in her 40s. Plenty of women experience exhaustion during that time. What she didn’t realize was that her body was trying desperately to tell her something was terribly wrong.
The Symptoms Mount—But Nobody Noticed
A few months after the exhaustion began, Susan traveled to France for a friend’s wedding. During that trip, something else changed. She experienced constipation for the first time in her adult life. Again, she minimized it. “I blamed the rich food, too much cheese, too much indulgence,” she recalls. She never considered it might be a medical emergency in the making.
When she returned to Brisbane, her body finally forced her to pay attention. One night, the symptoms escalated dramatically. She found herself on the bathroom floor in complete agony—vomiting, experiencing severe diarrhea, and dealing with unbearable pain that lasted eight excruciating hours. The pain was so intense she compared it to childbirth, rating it a nine out of ten on the pain scale. She crawled into the shower, desperately seeking relief through heat while struggling to understand what was happening.
In that moment of crisis, Susan had another theory: food poisoning from her horse. It was a plausible explanation for the symptoms, so she didn’t immediately suspect cancer.
The Tests That Promised Reassurance
What happened next might be the most important part of her story. Susan went to her doctor, and the initial tests came back normal. Her blood work showed nothing unusual. Her stool tests revealed no alarming markers. The doctors reassured her that everything was fine. “They told me I was okay,” Susan remembers. Many patients would have felt relief at this point. Many would have gone home convinced their health was secure.
But Susan’s instinct told her something was still wrong. She pushed for more answers.
The Diagnosis That Changed Everything
During a colonoscopy, doctors discovered a tumor. The initial discovery was shocking enough, but what came next was even more devastating. The subsequent CT and MRI scans revealed the true extent of the disease. Her rectal cancer had already metastasized—spreading to her uterus, her pelvic lymph nodes, and her right lung.
Susan was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in September 2023, when she was just 47 years old. The diagnosis was incurable.
“The goal now is to stay well for as long as I can,” she told media outlets. She’s since undergone multiple rounds of aggressive chemotherapy while continuing to work and advocate for awareness.
A Taboo Topic That’s Literally Killing People
One of Susan’s most powerful insights relates to why so many cases go undiagnosed until they’re advanced. She points to the social stigma surrounding bowel health. “I didn’t talk about my bowel habits, who does?” she asks. “That’s part of the problem with bowel cancer. People don’t raise the alarm early enough because we treat this topic as taboo.”
This silence is costing lives. Research shows that nearly three-quarters of Australians admit they don’t regularly check their stool for signs of bowel cancer. Additionally, almost half of Australian adults cannot identify three key warning symptoms. Meanwhile, over a quarter feel uncomfortable discussing bowel habits with their doctor.
Understanding the Overlooked Symptoms
Bowel cancer is deceptively silent in its early stages. According to medical professionals and cancer research organizations, early warning signs are often confused with common, less serious conditions:
Fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest can be caused by cancer cells dividing rapidly and consuming the body’s energy, or by internal bleeding that leads to anemia and low iron levels.
Changes in bowel habits—whether constipation, diarrhea, or a feeling that you haven’t completely emptied your bowels—can indicate a tumor interfering with normal digestive function.
Abdominal pain that’s persistent, worsening over time, or different from your normal digestive discomfort deserves medical evaluation.
Unexplained weight loss can occur as tumors block the bowel or disrupt nutrient absorption.
What makes bowel cancer particularly dangerous is that many people experience none of these symptoms until the cancer has already advanced, or they mistake them for stress, diet changes, or hormonal shifts.
The Message That Could Save Lives
Susan’s primary goal now is ensuring others don’t experience the same shock. “I want people to know the signs. I want them to push for answers if something feels off,” she says with conviction. “Even if your blood work is normal, even if they say it’s stress, diet, or hormones, listen to your instincts.”
She’s launched The Floozie Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting cancer patients and their families in adult cancer wards across Australia. The name reflects her personal philosophy: being “a glimmer hunter,” someone who looks for moments of joy even in dark circumstances.
The Screening Gap
Medical guidelines now recommend that adults begin bowel cancer screening at age 45 and continue until age 74. Yet many younger people dismissed Susan’s symptoms because they didn’t think cancer was “for them.” This assumption can be deadly. While bowel cancer most commonly affects older adults, cases in people under 50 are increasing globally.
When caught in early stages, bowel cancer is 99% treatable. This statistic alone underscores the critical importance of not ignoring symptoms and pushing for thorough medical evaluation.
Her Fight Continues
Today, Susan remains in active treatment, undergoing chemotherapy regimens designed to extend her life as long as possible. On her Instagram, she shares updates about her journey and her commitment to raising awareness. Her message resonates powerfully because it comes from lived experience—not from a clinical textbook, but from a real woman who wants to spare others from her fate.
The most important takeaway from her story: Trust your instincts. Bowel health isn’t a taboo subject—it’s a window into your overall wellness. If something feels persistently wrong, if fatigue doesn’t improve with rest, if your bowel habits change unexpectedly, don’t accept reassurance without thorough investigation. Push for answers. Your life could literally depend on it.
