Mom whose cancer was dismissed as IBS for years given just months to live
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: PA REAL LIFE
Ruth Lloyd-Williams, 61, was told she had 'months to live' after a scan revealed her liver was 'riddled' with tumours, but she refuses to accept the prognosis
A mother who suffered with what doctors dismissed as IBS for decades has been given just months to live after being diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer, but she's determined to outlive her prognosis and is manifesting a miracle.
Ruth Lloyd-Williams, 61, a businesswoman from Llandudno, North Wales, had experienced debilitating stomach symptoms since the age of five.
Doctors never fully investigated them, she said, and she was simply handed an IBS label and left to manage the condition herself for the rest of her life.
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It wasn't until January 2025, when she spontaneously enquired about a check-up for herself while booking a Doctor's appointment for her husband Paul, 67, that anything changed.
She had noticed some discomfort and a recent change in her bowel movements and thought: "I'll go and ask, I've not been for years."
That routine enquiry would change her life.
After her initial appointment, Ruth was referred for a colonoscopy on February 5 2025. Within an hour of the procedure, she was given the news that she had bowel cancer and a 6cm tumour had been found.
"It was almost like an out-of-body experience, you're out there watching somebody else get this news that's going to change their life," she said.
The following month, her consultant told her the cancer was "treatable and not curable" and that she would need a stoma, a surgically created opening on the surface of the abdomen used to divert the flow of faeces or urine.
She was also told she had five years to live.
Ruth arrived at hospital on the day of her stoma procedure in silver sequin trousers to "make a statement." Just two days later, a scan revealed the cancer had spread to her liver.
"The consultant came along to see me and said, 'I've got some news for you. Unfortunately, we're going to have to upgrade your diagnosis'," she recalled.
"I said, jovially, 'Oh, an upgrade to me is extra leg room and a glass of champagne, so what is it?'
"He said, 'No, unfortunately, the scan showed that you've got mets in your liver, you've got five years and there's nothing we can do'."
Ruth subsequently underwent chemotherapy from April to September 2025, followed by 25 sessions of radiotherapy. In February 2026 she had her liver resectioned and ablated, a procedure which uses extreme temperatures to destroy cancer cells. She then suffered an infection, and a follow-up scan in March revealed the tumours had grown again and her liver was "riddled."
She was told she had months to live.
Her response was characteristically defiant. "My answer to that was, 'Well, I can't go anywhere because I've got a grandson due in September'," she said.
Ruth was subsequently offered a new treatment called Breakwater, which she receives intravenously once a fortnight alongside daily tablets. Despite side effects including fatigue, nausea, mouth abscesses and peripheral neuropathy, a type of nerve damage, she says she is responding well and hopes it will prolong her life.
"I'm now on something that wasn't available to me when I was first diagnosed, so one year down the line, two years down the line, there might be something else," she said.
Beyond her treatment, Ruth has channelled her experience into a diary-style book about living with bowel cancer, complete with characters based on her tumour, stoma and PICC line. She named her tumour Billy, because at first she hoped he would have "no mates", her stoma Prada after the luxury brand and its bags, and her PICC line Lilli after the food piccalilli.
She has worked with an illustrator to create an animated character for Billy, basing him on "one of the ugliest fish in the world", a blue hairy frogfish.
The book, titled Ruth vs Billy, One Woman's War Against Billy The Hairy Blue Face Frog Fish, is due for release later this year. She has also set up a Facebook group of the same name where she posts regular updates about her journey.
If the worst happens, Ruth has decided she would like to be cremated in her wedding dress, to spare her family the "pain and heartbreak" of having to dispose of it, and have her ashes scattered in her back garden so she "never misses out on a family BBQ or a garden party."
But she isn't dwelling on that. Ruth, who built a community support resource for women called Network She and also runs a medical education business for healthcare professionals, is focused on staying positive, and on encouraging others facing similar diagnoses to do the same.
"Don't just sit there and be the statistic," she said. "It doesn't matter how old you are because, unfortunately, cancer doesn't care how old you are, or what your life plans are or whether you're going on holiday next year.
"Cancer hates positivity, so I hate cancer, so therefore I am being as positive as I possibly can, and that alone makes you feel better.
"Your diagnosis doesn't have to be the end of your life. It might be eventually, but it also might be the reason for living."