Kit Roberts
A 24-year-old woman who thought she was 'too young' to have cancer received a devastating diagnosis.
Meagan Meadows, 24, noticed some signs but thought that she was too young for them to mean that she had cancer.
The 24-year-old from South California had just completed a masters degree in education and had been looking forward to the next step.
But then Meagan started noticing a bit of blood in her stool when she began going to the bathroom.
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This was so faint to be barely visible and she didn't think much of it, but when she told her friends about it they immediately told her to get check out urgently just to be safe.
It was a good thing that she did, because it meant that doctors were able to spot the horrible diagnosis.
At first, Meagan had assumed she had haemorrhoids, something wrong with her diet, or perhaps was suffering from stress.
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Speaking to Business Insider, she said: "I just thought, I'm only 24, there's no way I have anything going on. I felt so embarrassed because clearly I was fine. I almost canceled my appointment."
Unfortunately, it transpired that Meagan had stage three colon cancer.
"When I woke up, they asked my mom to come in and get me so we could all be in the room with the doctor," she said. "It was difficult to process."
She added: "If I would have known that so many young people were getting diagnosed with colon cancer, I would have taken the symptom more seriously."
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Most alarmingly, Meagan said that she had simply not thought she would be vulnerable to such a devastating condition at her age.
The blood itself had not been in large quantities at all.
"It wasn't in concerning amounts; it wasn't there every time," she said. "I almost never noticed it there.
"I easily wrote it off as something else.
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"I had an image in my head that blood in the stool would mean the bowl was just red."
Since her diagnosis Meagan had to have a 25cm section of her colon removed as part of her treatment.
Now, Meagan is urging people to check their stool when they are in the toilet, just to make sure everything is okay.
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She said: "Obviously no one wants to talk about their poop but it's always better to get checked."
Meagan's loved ones are also raising money on GoFundMe to help support her through the difficult period and to cover medical bills.
Part of this, is that Meagan wants to freeze her eggs as chemotherapy can cause infertility, and she wants to ensure that she still has the option to have children in the future.
Anyone wishing to donate to Meagan's GoFundMe can do so here.