I got stomach cancer at 32 that spread all over my body – doctors failed to spot the telltale warning sign

A mother-of-one who felt perpetually fatigued and unable to have a social life was told by doctors she was ‘just getting older’ — two years later she was diagnosed with  stage 4 stomach cancer.

Even when Alyssa Burks, now 34 from Houston, complained she was suffering a telltale sign of the disease — difficulty swallowing and heartburn — the doctor advised her to cut down on acidic foods to control her symptoms.

It was only after persistently pushing doctors for more tests that the devastating diagnosis was revealed. 

Then, after several rounds of chemotherapy and an operation to remove her stomach, it was discovered the cancer had spread throughout her body to her lymph nodes.

Her cancer battle is ongoing, and she is still undergoing chemotherapy every two weeks. 

Every day is a battle for Ms Burks who now finds basic tasks tiring. 

‘My body is so exhausted, it is not the body I used to have. I always joke and say I am an old woman now because I just get fatigued so easily, I do one task and I just feel like I have done a whole day of running errands,’ she said. 

Ms Burks’ ordeal began in 2021, when she started to feel constantly fatigued. In a YouTube video detailing her cancer journey, she explained she did not have ‘energy to have a social life anymore’.

‘It was just work, home, sleep, repeat,’ she added. 

In the video posted by The Patient Story, which has amassed 2.5 million views, she said that at first she suspected her tiredness was a thyroid issue, but went to the doctor to get it checked out.

The blood tests suggested she was healthy, but both Ms Burks and her doctor agreed that it was unusual for her to feel this tired and decided to continue checking her blood.

Then, her heart rate started to randomly spike. 

‘I started getting notifications on my Apple Watch saying my heart rate was over 100bpm.’ 

For context, a normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute.

Ms Burks started to assume the alerts were just a glitch but still decided to share the information with her doctor which sparked them to run more tests on her heart. 

However, when the results of the ECG came back normal the doctor simply put her on beta blockers to slow down her heart rate.  

Yet, she then developed heartburn. 

‘I had never had it before, it continued every single time I ate, it was all day, all night,’ she recalled.

But when she went back to the doctor, she was told the heartburn was just ‘her age’ and that she ‘is getting older so maybe can’t handle acidic foods anymore’.

Told to cut back on acidic foods and prescribed with medication to keep it under control, Ms Burks still wasn’t convinced, and her symptoms didn’t improve.

‘I was getting frustrated because I was taking more and more medications and I wasn’t getting any answers as to what was causing all of this. I had never had health issues before,’ she said. 

Within the next two months she lost 15lbs (6.8kg), which her friends and family started to notice.

This was followed by a difficulty eating and swallowing water.  

‘I would go to eat something and it would almost feel like the food would get stuck half way and I couldn’t breathe, I would then try to drink something thinking my food was stuck, but then it would feel like I was drowning,’ Ms Burks said. 

At this point, in March 2023, she was referred her to a specialist gastroenterologist — two and a half years after her initial symptoms began.

Following stool samples, an endoscopy, a CT scan and a colonoscopy, medics discovered ‘bad’ inflammation where the oesophagus meets the stomach. 

A biopsy five days later revealed she had stomach cancer.

Ms Burks was told the cancer was likely caused by Helicobacter pylori — a type of bacteria that infects the stomach and can cause stomach ulcers. 

At first, medics reassured her that they had caught the cancer early and that it could hopefully be treated with surgery to remove the stomach alongside chemotherapy.

But further biopsies revealed the cancer had spread to her peritoneum — a smooth tissue that lines the abdominal cavity and surrounds abdominal organs.

There are around 6,600 new stomach cancer cases in the UK every year and 26,500 in the US. 

Loss of appetite, difficulty swallowing, indigestion that doesn’t go away and tiredness are all symptoms of stomach cancer, according to Cancer Research UK. 

But the survival rates for stage 4 stomach cancer are bleak with around 20 per cent of patients surviving for one year or more after their diagnosis in the UK. 

Ms Burks was offered a special treatment that meant she could have chemotherapy directly to her peritoneum and have surgery to remove her stomach.

After three rounds of chemotherapy, she had surgery to remove her stomach and attach her intestine to her oesophagus. 

But during the surgery doctors discovered the cancer was higher in her oesophagus than previously thought and the tumour took up half her stomach. 

Surgeons also removed 53 lymph nodes and results a week later revealed 27 were cancerous — meaning the cancer was aggressive and had spread throughout her body. 

She also had her ovaries removed after doctors found a cyst that they thought could be cancerous. 

Once she finished the trial her doctor revealed the targeted chemotherapy on her peritoneum didn’t work only leaving her with the option of chemotherapy that targets her whole body.

Now, Ms Burks is still battling cancer and sharing her story on social media, but she is constantly fatigued.

Without a stomach she is unable to absorb vitamin B12 from food and also does not get enough iron. She explained that due to getting her ovaries removed she is now going through the menopause and her ‘hormones are everywhere’. 

‘It’s a bit frustrating because I am a very independent person and I like to take care of a lot of things,’ she added. 

Ms Burks said: ‘I have a son I want to see him grown up and I want to be a grandmother one day. I want to see all his life moments and be there to support him and of course spend the rest of my life with my spouse, we have been together for eight years and although that may seem like a long time, I feel like we have so many more memories to make.’