Bowel cancer diagnosis for Bridgend bodybuilder Mat Dean

A bodybuilder who was told he might die before he turned 40 after his bowel cancer was missed has said the screening age for the disease must be lowered.

In 2022, Mat Dean, then 39, trained hard for a bodybuilding show but behind the image of perfection, he was seriously unwell.

“I looked great, I felt great at that time. But little did I know I had a cancerous tumour inside me that was going to try and kill me,” said Mat, from Bridgend.

Mat has since had multiple surgeries after cancer spread to his bladder and liver but said he was “fortunate” he was “here to tell the tale”. The Welsh government said it followed national guidance on screening.

Mat’s symptoms started the year before when he would have sporadic, severe stomach pain and find some blood when he had been to the toilet.

He was examined by a GP who said it was probably due to a small tear caused by lifting weights and sent him home.

By the following year the symptoms returned and when he lost a stone while on an all-inclusive holiday, it was the concerning trigger to get checked again.

“I had read up on bowel conditions – things it could be like Crohn’s, IBS, there’s a list of things and cancer is on your list but not at 39 years old” said Mat.

This time Mat, who was a landscape gardener before his illness meant he could no longer work, was sent for a scan which quickly revealed a large tumour in his bowel that had also spread to his liver.

“I cried when I was first told and then I just sat there like ‘is this really happening’?”

Telling his partner Holly was one of the most difficult moments, who was at home with their five-month-old daughter Willow when he got the diagnosis.

“In the beginning I think I was in denial, I didn’t want anyone knowing, I didn’t want it to be gossip,” recalled Holly.

“Anger I felt too – it was a really whirlwind time with a new baby.”

Mat’s initial surgery had to be changed because the cancer had spread to his bladder.

By February 2023 he underwent a second, major surgery to remove the tumour and his bladder, leaving him with two stoma bags, one linked to his bowel and one to his bladder.

“I was in a world of hurt and I have never seen so many tubes and machines in all my life. I didn’t even realise the human body could handle so many things sewn into it but it kept me alive.”

Earlier this year he had surgery to reverse the stoma linked to his bowel but the other remains, something Mat admits he struggled with, particularly on a recent holiday where people stared as he sat by the pool.

“I was always the guy with the top off in the garden – quite proud of my shape. It’s taken a long time for me to take my top off and expose them.

“But this is the card I have been dealt, I have got to learn to live with it. The bag is a part of me.”

The latest figures from Public Health Wales show 241 under-54s were diagnosed with bowel cancer, also called colorectal cancer, in 2021, out of a total of 2,654 across all ages.

A report in a medical journal at the end of last year found that rates in younger people were rising – something Mat’s surgeon, Martyn Evans from Swansea Bay health board has noticed.

“I’ve been a consultant for nearly 13 years now and when I look back to my training I have to say it was rare to see a patients under 50 with colorectal cancer.

“Worldwide there is a phenomenon that colorectal cancer in the under 50s is getting more common.

“It’s a phenomenon that we don’t really understand but it’s a worrying concern because what we do know is that when patients who are younger present, often they are presenting at a later stage of disease than those who are older.”

Mat, who also had to have a tumour in his liver removed, has been cancer free for two years and will be closely monitored for the next three.

But he is now looking to the future after proposing to Holly and planning a wedding in 2027.

“Nobody should go through what I have been through if they just keep a check on their health and their bowels – it can be easily missed,” said Mat.

“I would have died within the year if they’d done nothing… so the thought of being able to get a test earlier which is readily available, I think that’s key.”

In Wales, everyone 50 or over automatically receives at-home bowel screening test.

The Welsh government said: “We follow the independent, expert advice of the UK National Screening Committee which recommends routine bowel screening for men and women between the ages of 50 and 74.”