Teen, 19, diagnosed with stage three cancer reveals symptoms after being dismissed by doctors 13 times

A British teenager has spoken of her harrowing ordeal trying to get doctors to take her concerns seriously as she noticed significant health issues.

When Milli Tanner was 19, she made repeated efforts to get a better understanding of what was going wrong with her body.

The Brit eventually had to take matters into her own hands after being dismissed over a dozen times over two years.

Doctors told Tanner, now 23, she likely had piles, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or period problems when in fact she was dealing with a potentially deadly tumor.

Many of her concerns were dismissed due to her age, with medics apparently arguing she was simply 'too young' to likely be dealing with bowel cancer.

Speaking about her experience, Tanner, from Evesham, Worcestershire, explained: “They said that maybe I’d had a night out, had too much to drink, and that was irritating my stomach.

Milli Tanner said her symptoms were dismissed despite repeated visits to the doctors (PA)

“But the bleeding carried on, as well as the abdominal pain … it was continuous.

“There were discussions at the GP, such as: could it be my periods? Could it be this, could it be that?

“And I said: ‘No, usually with a period, it’s maybe you have a week every month with a bit of abdominal pain, and you obviously bleed, and that’s that, but you don’t tend to lose blood through your back passage.”

Before getting diagnosed, Tanner complained of lower back pain, blood in her stool and stomach pains.

She added: “I continued going to the GP. They referred me for an ultrasound to check for gallstones but it wasn’t that, I had a session with a physiotherapist for the back pain and they said that they couldn’t see anything wrong at all.

“And then it was pretty much just put down to piles.”

According to the NHS, piles, also known as hemorrhoids, are lumps inside and around a person’s anus.

They can get better on their own after a few days but the symptoms can be debilitating - these include bright red blood after going toilet, an itchy or painful area around your anus and feelings you still need to go toilet after already going.

Tanner eventually ordered a test herself (PA)

From June 2021 to November 2023, Tanner said she had 13 GP appointments, went to the emergency room and had a call with NHS 111.

She went on to say she grew annoyed at not getting anything definitive regarding her health.

Tanner eventually ordered herself a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) online, which looks for tiny traces of blood in the stool that could indicate bowel cancer.

The tests ended up being positive and Tanner then took it to her GP, however, this didn’t immediately resolve the issue.

Following guidelines, they ordered a FIT test on the National Health Service.

Tanner continued: “The GP did put through a referral for a colonoscopy but I had a phone call to say it was a 60-week wait.

“Once the GP had ordered their own FIT test and it was positive, they were able to put it through as urgent.”

'You know your own body better than anybody else does'

By this point, Tanner said she already believed she had bowel cancer after researching the signs and symptoms.

Following the urgent colonoscopy, she received the devastating news that the bowel cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and was stage three.

Tanner has since had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and has been fitted with a permanent stoma. Her most recent CT scans show no signs of cancer.

She urged: “I’d say to people: you know your own body better than anybody else does.

“If it feels wrong, then keep going back until you find what is wrong.”

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.