I went to the doctor thinking I needed to have my gallbladder removed and was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer at 43

When Georgia Carter felt a pain on her right side she assumed she had pulled a muscle by lifting weights at the gym - but instead it was a warning sign of something far more serious. 

The pain eventually led the 44-year-old to have ultrasound on her gallbladder which led to a devastating diagnosis of stage four metastatic bowel cancer. 

A tumor was found in her bowel along with lesions on her liver, rectum and sigmoid colon as the cancer spread. 

She experienced few other symptoms, but told FEMAIL going to the bathroom was never 'fully satisfying' and she had 'felt off' months prior. Looking back, she said there was signs of blood in her stools too but this tended to coincide with her periods.

'Things weren't quite right. I had changed jobs and come from a stressful, high pressure situation so I put a lot of it down to anxiety and stress,' Georgia said. 

'Once I moved into a new role that had more of a work-life balance the symptoms popped up and I was confused.' 

The diagnosis came as a complete shock as Georgia as she does not have any family history of colon cancer, although her mum had leukaemia. 

The ultrasound and CT scan 'uncovered everything that was going on'. 

Georgia Carter (pictured) was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer 12 months ago 

The 44-year-old from Western Australia said she experienced few common symptoms and doesn't have any family history of cancer 

The day after that gallbladder ultrasound twelve months ago, Georgia was called back to what she thought was a routine follow-up appointment. 

'I thought they were going to tell me to get my gallbladder removed or something. Being told it's cancer.. the wind gets taken out of your sails really quickly. It's like an instant panic attack, hyperventilation moment,' she said. 

'I went to the appointment alone so I called my husband and he dropped everything to join me.

'Ever since that moment I now understand why GPs run late. I stayed for as long as I needed to be there.'

Four days later she was in hospital to get a port put into her chest for chemotherapy treatment.

Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your stools, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss as a result of these symptoms

'They couldn't do a proper colonoscopy because the tumour was so big it was blocking the bowel,' Georgia said. 

But she did have surgery to insert a stent into her colon to reduce the risk of obstruction. 

A week later she started chemotherapy treatment which worked well, killing the cancer cells. However the deadly cells 'tore away' from the stent and perforated her bowel, causing further issues.

'After the second round of chemo I was in extraordinary pain and I wouldn't work out what was going on. Everyone was saying it was from the treatment so I just sucked it up until it got to the point where I couldn't eat anything or keep anything down,' Georgia said. 

'I almost died - everything had stopped in my bowels and it was because my bowel had perforated and my abdominal cavity was full.'

Georgia (pictured with her husband) also 'nearly died' when her bowel perforated 

She was rushed to emergency surgery where surgeons removed a third of her bowel and the primary tumour - something Georgia described as 'the silver lining' of the ordeal. 

She remained in intensive care for five days and in hospital for three weeks in August last year then started treatment mid-September until the end of April. 

Since then Georgia has been 'rebuilding her strength' and had surgery three weeks ago to check on her liver which 'wasn't in a great condition' due to treatment. 

'The positive news is I'm pretty sure my bowel is completely clear of any tumours. So the cancer is now only in my liver but in awkward positions so doctors aren't able to remove them as easily,' Georgia said. 

She has since started treatment again to try reduce the lesions as much as possible.

Now she's taking it one day at a time, is 'focused on getting her mindset into the right place' and will be on treatment for the next six months. 

While doctors are confident the chemotherapy will shrink the remaining cancer cells Georgia is still worried it will spread again but is hoping for the best. 

The life-changing cancer means she also has to live with a stoma bag and has dealt with physical challenges.

Now she's taking it one day at a time and if 'focused on getting her mindset into the right place' and will be on treatment for the next six months

'I've always been physically strong - I used to life weights and was the strongest woman my PT used to work with, which I was really proud of,' she said.

'Over the last 12 months I've lost 35kg and am no longer that strong person I was. I know I'm stronger in other ways but building that strength is a really impossible mountain to climb at the moment.

'I refuse to let this become my personality and let my sickness be who I am. So I kind of push through it. The days I push myself beyond what I think I can do, I get physically exhausted and then I sleep better,' she added. 

'I'm never going to sit around and feel sorry for myself.'

To help get through the difficult times, Georgia recalled a mantra from a book by Sarah Polley: run towards the danger.

'So you face it head on rather than trying to put up mechanisms to hide and shy away from it, because you're never going to get better, you're never going to get stronger if you don't face those issues, or face what you're what you're going through,' Georgia said.

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