Man diagnosed with cancer months after doctors dismissed symptoms and said he was ‘too young’
With just months to go until his wedding, Ashley Robinson began experiencing stomach issues, but when he took those complaints to his doctor, he was dismissed.
The 35-year-old shockingly lost 26 pounds in just seven days, and when doctors finally listened to his wife's desperate plea for them to see him, he was told he had stage four bowel cancer that had spread to his liver - and a tumor the size of an orange in his colon.
In July last year, Robinson married his partner Jasmin, but the preparation for it was far from easy as he was working 60-hour weeks as a chef to help fund the big do.
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Two months prior to that, the Brit began passing 'quite a lot of blood' during his bowel movements.
"In June, it started getting worse, and I rang my GP but they said that it wasn't serious, told me not to worry and that it would pass in a week or so," Robinson, of Dacorum in Hertfordshire, said.
"I told them that it had already been going on for a month but they just said to leave it another week."
He assumed it was simply just stress-related and admitted he probably would have taken the ordeal more seriously, had he not had so much going on in his life.
Robinson continued: "It got really bad and I passed the most insane amount of blood so I phoned my GP and they told me to go to A&E [the UK version of the ER] straight away.
"When I saw the doctor I mentioned to him that my great nan had died of colon cancer but he said there was no chance and that I was too young.
"I went home with medication and took that for two weeks but nothing changed."
With his bachelor party on the horizon he opted to push it to the back of his mind and deal with it later, as every health professional he had seen told him that he 'definitely didn't have cancer', he explained.
"They were saying 'you're fine, don't worry, go and get married' so I took their word for it," Robinson said.
After their wedding he wanted to know exactly what was up with him, as he had shed 26 pounds in a short period of time.
"I went back to my GP. I rang them three or four times and they wouldn't see me. They said there was nothing wrong with me or that it was just piles," Robinson shared.
"My wife went down there while I was at work. She stormed in there and forced them to see me.
"They got me in but my GP said they still didn't think I had cancer, but they put me forward for a colonoscopy. That's when they found a tumour the size of an orange in my colon."
He continued: "I was dreading getting the [biopsy] results back. I was told I had stage 4 colon cancer, which had spread to my liver. It was the worst news possible.
"It's so hard to put into words the hammer blow, it absolutely crushed my wife. Aside from it happening to her, it was the worst possible news I ever could have had."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
Joe Yates