My little brother was diagnosed with bowel cancer twelve months ago at aged 38. He had the tumour removed and it was deemed he did not need chemo. He has stage 2, with T3 and N0 (based on the removal and testing of 56 nodes). His blood tests and CT scans have been clear since, although he is due for new blood tests in a couple of weeks.
In truth he has a very good prognosis. He has complained of fatigue and intermittent dizziness ever since the operation (12 months ago) and suffers from extreme anxiety of recurrence (our mother suffered from chronic health anxiety and then died of bowel cancer aged 51). I am very concerned that the constant anxiety/stress in going to burn him out mentally and it creates a very poor quality of life for him (and those that love him).
I would be very grateful if anyone had any ideas/suggestions as to anything he/we might try to help dial back this anxiety. For example I have been looking at residential meditation retreats thinking may offer a tool to managing his thoughts. He's fortunate enough to be in the position where he has the financial ability to invest in this sort of thing.
Again, any advice would be gratefully received. It's painful to watch him. It never stops and there is no 'peace' for him at the moment.
Thank you in advance.
Hi and welcome to the online community
I doubt there's anyone who's had cancer within the community who doesn't worry that it might come back so we all know how your brother feels right now.
Do you know if he's spoken to his cancer nurse specialist (CNS) about how he feels? She could refer him to someone who could help if he needs extra support.
Would your brother consider joining this community where he could talk his concerns and worries through with others who have had bowel cancer in the bowel cancer group? We also have a group called life after cancer which is a safe space to discuss things like the physical and emotional after effects of cancer, returning to work, or trying to move on with your life.
You are also welcome to join these groups and clicking on the links I have created will take you directly there. You then need to choose 'click to join' or 'join' (depending on the device you're using) on the page that opens. Once you've joined you can introduce yourself and post questions in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
When you have a minute, it would be really useful if you could pop something about your brother's journey so far into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar diagnosis. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
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