Note: This piece talks about cancer, which may be upsetting for some readers.
A single mom with stage four colon cancer is warning others about the signs she first overlooked.
Radwah Oda has unfortunately been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. She is trying to keep her office job in Texas and take care of her child at the same time.
A mother shared a TikTok video that has 2.3 million views, where she talks about warning signs she ignored, thinking they were not important.
She is now encouraging people to “advocate for themselves” because many are told their symptoms are not cancer.
She explained the five main symptoms and said, “If you have any of these symptoms, please don’t be concerned, but go see a doctor.”
Changes in bowel movements
A common sign of colon cancer is changes in how your bowels work. For Oda, it was the first small sign she noticed.
Her stool looked thin and pencil-shaped, but she dismissed it as just ‘constipation’.
She also noticed blood in her stool, but thought that it was as a result of haemorrhoids.
A study from 2024 pointed out that blood in the stool is one of the two main warning signs in younger patients.
She also mentioned feeling like her guts were never completely empty.
In the video, she said: “Each time I would use the restroom, I would feel like I still needed to go. I would keep pushing and pushing but nothing would come out.”
