Dame Deborah Jones' advice saved my life

MUM DECIDED TO SEE DOCTOR AFTER WATCHING PODCASTER'S TV PROGRAMME ABOUT SYMPTOMS

- HELENA VESTY

A MUM-OF-THREE young children says her life was saved by Dame Deborah James, inset below.

Lyndsey Ainscough started noticing some worrying symptoms finding dark blood when going to the toilet and losing weight. At first, she dismissed them as changes in her lifestyle, and she assumed the bloating was irritable bowel syndrome.

But in 2022, she watched as 'You, Me and the Big C' podcaster and journalist Dame Deborah was in the final days of her struggle with bowel cancer, and decided she should see a doctor. Deborah died in June of that year aged 40, five years after her stage four bowel cancer diagnosis.

Lyndsey was just 37 years old, a busy mum to three children, Perry aged four, Spencer aged eight and Alfie aged 12 years, when she started noticing suspicious signs.

"I had noticed dark blood when going to the toilet and was losing weight. I'd put it down to a change in lifestyle during the pandemic and thought the bloated tummy was IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), but when I saw 'Bowel Babe, who was a similar age to me, on breakfast TV something just clicked and I suddenly thought, what if I have the same? So, I decided to make an appointment to see a doctor straight away. I have her to thank for that," Lyndsey explained.