A grieving mother is calling for younger Scots to be screened for bowel cancer after doctors ‘dismissed’ her late daughter’s symptoms because of her age.
Cheryl Reid passed away from the disease in February, aged 32, after years of suffering from abdominal pain and bloating, which medics continually put down to minor ailments including acid reflux and constipation.
By the time she was finally diagnosed in October at the age of just 31, the cancer had spread to her liver and lymph nodes.
Her devastated mother Margaret Cairns Horne, of Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, has now launched an online petition calling for the national bowel screening age to be lowered from 50 to 30 in a bid to ‘prevent further tragedies’.
She said: ‘No one should be told they are “too young” for cancer while it is silently advancing through their body. Cheryl’s story must not be repeated.
‘Early diagnosis saves lives. Screening and timely investigations can detect cancer before it spreads and becomes untreatable.’
Ms Reid passed away at the Beatson Cancer Centre, Glasgow, on February 4 - less than four months after she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer.
She had been suffering from symptoms ‘on and off’ for years which got steadily worse over the last two.
Cheryl Reid, who died in February 2025 at the age of 32 from stage 4 bowel cancer
Margaret Cairns, pictured here with her daughter Cheryl Reid, has urged young Scots to get screened for bowel cancer
During countless trips to doctors and A and E she was even advised to ‘change her diet and lifestyle’.
In one of her last posts on social media informing family and friends of her diagnosis, Ms Reid said she had been ‘refused’ a CT scan just months earlier.
It was only when her bloods ‘took a spike’ in October that she said it was ‘enough for them to take me seriously’. But by then the disease was terminal.
In her post she said: ‘I’m so angry that had someone listened to me sooner maybe that wouldn’t have happened.’
Ms Cairns Horne said her daughter’s symptoms were ‘missed and dismissed because of her age’ and ‘by the time she was properly investigated, it was too late’.
She told the Mail that one doctor even told her that there were so many tumours in her liver that it was ‘more like an 80-year-old patient than a 30-year old’.
But she said when Ms Reid was sent by her local GP to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for a scan last July a junior doctor ‘refused’ her request.
Ms Cairns Horne said: ‘She was crying and begging for help, saying ‘I know there is something wrong with me, please help me’.
Following a complaint to the health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde apologised that ‘Ms Reid’s presentation and assessment in July 2024 may have contributed to a delayed diagnosis of a stage 4 colorectal cancer’.
A petition by Ms Cairns Horne now calls for the government to ‘lower the bowel screening age and ensure earlier investigation of symptoms, no matter how old the patient is’.
She said: ‘The system failed her, and it must change to prevent further tragedies.’
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Scotland but is ‘treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early’.
Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said advice about screening programmes comes from the UK National Screening Committee which currently does not recommend screening for those under 50.
Morag Gardner, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Deputy Nurse Director for Acute Services, said the case had been reviewed ‘in great detail’ following a complaint.
She added that she ‘would encourage’ Ms Reid’s family to get in touch so they can meet to ‘address their concerns and any misunderstandings’.