BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Modern-day medicines are easing the strain cancer can have on the body, but early detection remains one of the best preventative measures.
When being screened for cancer, the best scenario is to detect it as early as possible. With more colon cancer detected in younger ages, the recommended screening age has changed.
Doctors say 45 is the new 50 for colon cancer screenings, and some doctors say even sooner in some cases.
Victoria Hummel was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2019. She was 39– below the typical screening age.
“It was a real shock to me. I was just like, I couldn’t believe it. And just all these emotions came and I was just like my family, my girls, you know, what am I going to do? I felt like God gave me these precious little babies and he wants to take me away from them so soon” Hummel said.
Hummel thought she had hemorrhoids after the birth of her second daughter. She went to the emergency room when the bleeding wouldn’t stop.
That’s where she got the news– she had stage four colon cancer.
“I just felt like. Like this is it. This is. I just felt like I. I wanted to just give up. And I’m like, I can’t do this. But I had people in my life and really stood by me, like from the get go, you know, encouraged me to go on and to, you know, to fight this.”
Medical Director of the Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center Dr. Ravi Patel said the best treatment is early screenings.
“If you have symptoms, pain, discomfort, rectal discomfort, if you have black stools, or if you notice blood in the stools, and it’s fairly frequent– then you can get it done early.”
With what time Hummel has left, she wants to spread the message of early testing.
“I just feel like that if people knew the symptoms and what to look for, that they could they could, you know, catch it in time and they would be okay. They can be cancer free.”
For more information on colon cancer you can read more on what the American Cancer Society also recommends.
