A mother of three was “shocked” to discover she was suffering from stage 4 bowel cancer after doctors initially diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection.
Zoe Gardner-Lawson, 36, began experiencing a constant dull pain in her lower back in August 2024. Before the pain began, she had felt “fit and healthy.”
The sensation in led her to schedule a phone appointment with her doctor, who prescribed a five-day course of antibiotics for a suspected UTI.
When the pain didn’t subside, she was given two more courses of antibiotics over the following month.
“There was just no change — and by my third dose, I’d really deteriorated,” she said. “I was basically bedridden — I felt so unwell, and the back pain had spread to my abdomen, too.”
On September 19, Gardner-Lawson had another appointment with her doctor, who advised her to go straight to the emergency room.
Doctors initially suspected kidney stones after checking her symptoms and performing a physical exam. But a CT scan ruled out the possibility, and she was referred for blood tests.
“My blood was checked for infection markers, called creatine reactive protein,” Gardner-Lawson said. “They were rising, until they reached 364n/mol — a normal range for women is 52.9n/mol and 91.9n/mol.”
When a general surgeon came to see her, he noted that it appeared she had fluid buildup in her abdomen. At that point, Gardner-Lawson insisted on having a full-body scan.
She underwent the CT scan, and an hour later, another consultant informed her that she had a perforation in her bowel and needed to be admitted immediately.
A second opinion in October revealed that she had a 5 cm lime-sized tumor on her bowel, which was causing the perforation. The cancer had spread to her liver, peritoneum, and stomach lymph nodes.
Gardner-Lawson was transferred to Cleveland Clinic London for further treatment, where Murray proposed a treatment plan.
“I needed emergency surgery to remove the tumor on my bowel, get rid of all the fluid and waste which seeped out, and then re-evaluate,” she said.
The operation took place on October 3 and lasted four hours, with the goal of removing as much of the tumor and fluid as possible.
A biopsy later confirmed the tumor was a cancerous blastoma — one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Gardner-Lawson was told that she would need to triple her chemotherapy dosage.
“I’ve tolerated it as well as anybody can, it’s pretty hardcore,” she said. “I’m on round five of eight in total — it’s three chemo drugs per round.”
In addition to chemotherapy, Gardner-Lawson enrolled in a natural remedies clinic for guidance on diet and exercise, as well as vitamin C infusions and mistletoe injections.
“I’ve basically just taken the approach to throw the kitchen sink at it; improve my prognosis as much as possible,” said Gardner-Lawson said, who has set up a GoFundMe to help fund her alternative treatments.
She believes that if she had been offered a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) earlier, doctors might have detected her cancer years ago.
She’s an advocate for lowering the minimum age for bowel cancer screenings to “at least 30,” if not 25.
For now, her prognosis remains uncertain, and doctors are waiting to see if the tumors shrink in response to chemotherapy.
“The plan is, once I’ve had my sixth round of chemo, they’re hoping I’ll have responded well,” Gardner-Lawson said. “All being well, I’ll need to be booked in for a second surgery — to remove remaining stomach lymph nodes and two tumors on my liver.”
Gardner-Lawson hopes the minimum age for bowel cancer screenings will eventually drop to “at least” 30 years old.
“If my disease was caught earlier, it would’ve been easier to treat… I think the minimum age for testing needs to reduce,” said Gardner-Lawson, a human resources worker from Berkshire, England.
“My professor, Jamie Murphy, told me that I could’ve been living with this tumor for up to four years before my diagnosis — that’s terrifying,” she said. “If all goes well, I still have a chance at achieving a ‘no evidence of disease’ status, but it all depends on these next couple of years.”
