Mother's message to young Australians after terminal cancer diagnosis | 9 News Australia

She spent years on the front line helping others as a paramedic.Now an Adelaide mother of three has her own health battle.Diagnosed with bowel cancer and given just a few years to live.Her story is hard to hear, but Louisa wants us all to listen.

Young mum Louisa Irvine looks like she has it all, but the 35 -year -old paramedic is in the fight of a lifetime.Two months ago she learned she had bowel cancer when she had surgery for endometriosis.

To come out of there with a diagnosis of not only cancer but knowing that it's cancer that had spread, yeah we were absolutely devastated and completely blindsided really.

Louisa had abdominal pain, bloating and nausea for six to twelve months prior to her diagnosis, but brushed it off as regular pain and life as a busy mum.

Hindsight's a beautiful thing.If I could step back then and actually get these symptoms explored sooner rather than later like I did, yeah, I think that that would mean a lot.

Louisa's been told she has just one to two years to live.

I want to go about my life my life as normally as I can and as positively as I can and just keep things as normal as I can for the kids and just to make sure that we, you know, still have that quality time together.

In the developed world, Australia has the highest rate of early onset bowel cancer.And while 99 % of cases can be treated successfully if found early, fewer than half are detected in time.

By the time they do get a diagnosis, it's often They've had multiple interactions, months have passed and the cancer has now spread to the liver, lung or elsewhere.

And scientists can't explain this rise in young people.

This is something that researchers are working on at the moment but we don't have the answers yet and it might take many years to find that actual cause.factor.

But Louisa's family isn't on this road alone.A fundraiser has been set up to ease some of the burden.

Louisa as a person is one of the most kind -hearted, beautiful, highly empathetic, nurturing, generous people that we've both ever met.We just want to be able to help out.as best we can I think financially that's how we can do it.

If it makes someone comfortable to come and talk about their symptoms or you know just get it explored earlier that is just all I'm hoping by by sharing.