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	University graduate Anna Flood was 22 when she first went to her GP suffering from extreme fatigue.</p>
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	Despite multiple trips to the doctor complaining of weight loss and bowel problems, they repeatedly missed her cancer.</p>
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	Two years later, in May 2010, Anna was admitted to hospital where she received the &ldquo;shock&rdquo; news that she had bowel cancer.</p>
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	She suffers from Lynch syndrome, the same genetic condition which caused teenage campaigner Stephen Sutton&rsquo;s bowel cancer and death last year.</p>
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	Anna, now 28, who lives in Putney in south-west London, said: &ldquo;It was a shock definitely. At this point I did not know there was a family history of it on my dad&rsquo;s side.</p>
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	&ldquo;My dad hadn&rsquo;t really thought it was a risk that would affect his children so we didn&rsquo;t really know anything about it. And obviously I was very young and healthy and fit.&rdquo;</p>
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	Anna, who studied history at Exeter University and is beginning a nursing degree in the autumn, said she did not feel her GP took her seriously.</p>
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	It was not until she was admitted to hospital with stomach pains that she got the life-saving treatment she needed.</p>
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	She said: &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t until I was taken to A&amp;E by my mum that things really started moving really quickly. The way I was treated in hospital was brilliant &ndash; you couldn&rsquo;t fault it.</p>
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	&ldquo;They did lots of tests, did it all really quickly, operated quickly. Whereas when I went to the GP feeling really, really ill, I felt, not fobbed off, but as though they weren&rsquo;t really taking me seriously.&rdquo;</p>
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	Anna underwent successful treatment and will have her five year scan next month which she hopes will show she is all clear of the cancer.</p>
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	She called for more to be done to diagnose and treat young people earlier.</p>
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	Adding: &ldquo;There needs to be more work done to make it less of a stigma, less embarrassing for young people to talk about these things.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/it-took-two-years-before-anna-flood-was-diagnosed-with-bowel-cancer-337230.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/it-took-two-years-before-anna-flood-was-diagnosed-with-bowel-cancer-337230.html</a></p>
