'I thought my bloating was a sign of the menopause — but the truth was devastating'

A mum who put her bloating down to menopause was diagnosed with colon cancer after noticing "speckled blood" in her stool. Natalie Hushin initially thought her bloating and poorly stomach was due to the change, but her symptoms soon became " weird and unusual". Whe the 54-year-old woman then began experiencing blood in her stool after struggling to go to the toilet, she visited her GP and was referred for a colonoscopy. This identified tumours on Natalie's colon, and she was diagnosed with cancer weeks later. The mother, from Runcorn, Cheshire, underwent a 10-and-a-half-hour operation to remove the tumour, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy. She is now warning others about the symptoms of colon cancer, which is one of the most common types of cancer in the UK, and can also cause weight loss without trying. Natalie, a former company director, said: "The surgery went well, they removed the tumour and surrounding lymph nodes. I had a PET scan afterwards that revealed the cancer was on my liver too. I did six rounds of chemotherapy, oral tablets every day and infusions every fortnight for three months." The treatment started in September 2025 but, in December, a PET scan showed a 1cm tumour on the edge of her liver, with specialists planning a liver ablation to remove it for the second week of February this year. However, the operation date passed without the procedure taking place. By March, an MRI scan showed the tumour had grown to three and a half centimetres, and Natalie underwent a liver resection to remove it. Natalie continued: "I am going through menopause at the moment, so I thought my bloating was caused by that. When I would eat, I would get a bit bloated and have a dicky stomach. But I would struggle to go to the toilet, and I noticed speckled blood in my stool I told my son, and he urged me to go to the doctors to get it checked out." Recalling the moment she was diagnosed, in June last year, the mum said: "I just broke down. I was in utter disbelief, heartbreak and fear. I was going through every emotion possible — my whole life was flashing before me." Colon cancer killed more than 900,000 people worldwide in 2022, according to recent data by the World Health Organisation. Natalie's cancer was detected early and, as the liver resection eventually happened, she has had the treatment to overcome her battle. But Natalie will need to undergo scans every three months for 10 years to monitor for any growth. She added: "It is a difficult rollercoaster. I was very fortunate to have very good surgeons on both of my surgeries — I cannot fault them. This surgery could have been avoided if the ablation had taken place when it was supposed to."