Susan Schmidt, a 45-year-old mother of two from Australia, faced a life-altering shock when she was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in September 2023—after initially dismissing what seemed like minor symptoms.
Now determined to raise awareness, Susan is opening up about her experience to help others detect the illness earlier.
“The cancer can’t be cured,” she told The Daily Mail. “My focus now is on staying as healthy as possible for as long as I can. I’ll likely start chemotherapy again after my upcoming trip overseas.”
Susan pointed out that discussions around bowel habits are often avoided, as the topic remains taboo. However, she believes breaking this silence is crucial for increasing awareness.
“I never talked about my bowel habits—who does?” she said. “That’s one of the issues with bowel cancer. People don’t speak up soon enough to catch it early.”
Looking back on the symptoms she had before being diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, Susan admitted that the possibility of cancer never even occurred to her.
She recalled feeling unusually tired, dealing with constipation, and going through two severe bouts of pain. She also noted that she never saw any blood in her stool, which might have otherwise raised concern.
The earliest symptom Susan noticed was constant, overwhelming fatigue, which began about four months prior to her diagnosis.
“I used to drive my daughter just 15 minutes to rowing practice, and on the way back, I’d have to pull over and sleep for 40 minutes,” recalled Susan, a physiotherapist. “That’s not normal. It was a clear warning sign, but I ignored it.”
While attending a friend’s wedding in France, Susan experienced constipation for the first time in her life.
“I just wasn’t going regularly,” she said. “I blamed it on the rich food—too much cheese, too much indulgence.” She admitted she didn’t give it much thought at the time.
However, things took a turn for the worse after she returned home to Brisbane. “I ended up collapsed on the bathroom floor in excruciating pain—vomiting, diarrhoea, pain that was completely unbearable,” she recalled. “It went on for eight hours.”
At first, Susan suspected she might have contracted salmonella from her horse, which had been infected at the time.
“It was more painful than childbirth,” she told The Daily Mail. “I was crawling into the shower, hoping the hot water would ease the pain. It was a nine out of ten—absolutely unbearable.”
When Susan first went to the hospital, doctors weren’t considering cancer as a possibility and assured her that everything seemed fine. But not long after, she received the devastating news: she had stage 4 bowel cancer.
“I want people to recognize the signs and trust their gut,” she said. “If something doesn’t feel right, push for answers. Even if your blood tests come back normal, or they blame it on stress, diet, or hormones—don’t ignore what your body is telling you.”
Since her diagnosis, Susan has founded The Floozie Foundation, an initiative aimed at supporting those affected by cancer. Its mission is “to build the resilience of patients and their support networks in adult cancer wards across Australia.”
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