In the past, I used to love going out with friends, working out in the gym, going on walks every day and playing with my dog. I had a regular life for a 20-something, and I adored it. I never could have expected how much my life would be turned upside down in just six months.
When my back pain started in August 2025, I really did not think much of it. At the time, I was in hospital receiving treatment for an eating disorder, so I spoke to my doctors about the pain. They assessed me but did not notice anything concerning, so they suggested it was just my body adjusting to the healthy weight gain. I kept on having the back pain and body aches, but still, I assumed that was normal.
A few months passed and, by October, I noticed a lump on the side of my neck. I had never had anything like that before, but I just thought it was something that occurs naturally.
Nevertheless, I booked to see my doctor in November so I could get a second opinion. They did an ultrasound on the lump and said it was only a cyst and did not require any further investigation. When I heard that, I thought, Great, what a relief.
‘I Needed Them To Take Me Seriously’
I was still experiencing the body aches and then my stomach also became really swollen. It looked bloated and distended, not to mention, it was rock hard.
I had never experienced that before, and I started to question the growing list of symptoms. I was in an extreme amount of pain, so I went back to my GP where I was urged to head to the emergency room.
My mom came to the emergency room with me, and doctors thought it could be a bowel obstruction. They did not want to do a CT scan because I was only 28 years old, so they did an X-ray and I was sent home that night, believing it was constipation.
As my condition remained the same over the following days, I went back to the emergency department with the same painful symptoms.
I needed them to listen and take me seriously.
They did more X-rays before eventually doing a CT, which revealed the devastating truth. When the results came in, the consultant doctor simply could not stop apologizing.
I just remember the doctor repeatedly saying he was sorry. I did not know what he was talking about, and then he handed me the results of my CT scan.
In that moment, I read the words “evidence of metastatic disease.”
At the age of 28, I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, and the report listed a significant number of tumors. It was a huge shock, especially after being sent home with constipation earlier in the week.
My mom went outside to call my dad and told him to come into the hospital immediately. At the time, he still believed I was in for a bowel obstruction, so, when my mom told him something bad happened, he thought I had died in surgery or something. When he got to the hospital, he was distraught, and then I had to break it to my own dad that I have cancer.
After that, I was admitted, and it turns out the issue with my stomach was something called ascites. It is the body’s way of reacting to the cancer, as the abdominal cavity fills with fluids that must be drained.
My stomach looked so distended by that point, I looked nine months pregnant. Two nursing assistants even asked me how the baby was, and I had to tell them it was not a baby bump; I actually have cancer. The fluid was drained from my abdominal cavity a few days later, and they collected 7 liters of fluid.
‘I Never Had Any Issues With My Skin’
I was so shocked by my diagnosis because I never had any issues with my skin—no moles, no sun spots, nothing. But it turns out that you can develop melanoma just like any other cancer; it doesn’t have to be caused by sun exposure.
The scans also identified two compound fractures in my spine, which was, of course, the cause of my body aches. No wonder I was dealing with such severe back pain.
I was eventually discharged from hospital and had my first immunotherapy treatment at the end of November. By mid-December, I was back in hospital having my stomach drained because there was more fluid and I was still suffering with symptoms.
I started chemotherapy in January 2026 because I was not responding to immunotherapy. A few weeks later, I returned to hospital because I could not get my pain under control. No amount of medication could help, and it turned out that I had three more spinal fractures because the bones were so weak from the tumors.
I had to have spinal surgery on February 20 to stabilize my vertebrae from T2 to T8, and they removed a large tumor on my T5 vertebrae. The recovery from that was intense, and I spent around three weeks in hospital seeing physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Immunotherapy took a toll on my body, and I had severe swelling, nausea, and could not eat. It was all the classic symptoms that are associated with cancer, so we eventually stopped with immunotherapy, and now I’m currently back on chemotherapy tablets.
‘I Feels Like my Life Is on Hold’
My whole life has been turned upside down in the space of a few months.
You truly never think it is going to happen to you. This was the first time I had ever experienced these symptoms, and I was otherwise very healthy.
It feels like my life is on hold, which is really frustrating because I cannot do the things that my peers are doing. I haven’t been able to work since I was diagnosed, I can’t travel, can’t live alone, can’t go out on the weekends.
I think that has been the hardest part because these precious years are being wasted due to cancer. I try to have a positive outlook because that’s all you can do.
Otherwise, those dark moments will consume you and you cannot function if you if dwell on the magnitude of the situation.
My advice is to trust yourself when it comes to your health. If you feel like something is wrong, advocate for yourself. It’s especially important as a young person because I think that’s why my symptoms were dismissed so many times because I was seen as a young healthy person who couldn’t possibly have cancer.
There were so many opportunities where a diagnosis was missed or delayed.
Charlotte Fowler, 29, lives in Perth, Australia, and has been documenting her experience on TikTok (@charfowlerx).
Posting about her health journey has been a cathartic exercise allowing Fowler to cultivate a supportive community as she hopes to continue raising awareness for melanoma.
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