Doctors dismissed 35-year-old groom’s stomach issues as ‘wedding stress’… now he’s been diagnosed with colon cancer and it’s incurable

Like many husbands-to-be Ashley Robinson was nervous before his big day, and believed medics when they told him his stomach issues were just pre-wedding jitters. 

But the truth was that the 35-year-old was suffering from deadly colon cancer, with an orange sized tumour growing in his body. 

Mr Robinson, from Dacorum in Hertfordshire, first contacted his GP last May after noticing blood in his stools. 

But he claims he was repeatedly told it ‘wasn’t serious’ and should pass ‘in a week or so’. 

After the chef suddenly passed ‘an insane’ amount of blood a month later he rushed to A&E. 

But he said medics there also insisted that he was ‘too young for cancer’ and simply diagnosed him with piles. 

It was only when he lost almost 2st (12.7kg) in the week following his wedding last July, and his wife argued with his GP, that they agreed to run further tests.

Scans then revealed the devastating truth that Mr Robinson had stage 4 colon cancer — the most serious stage that means it’s spread elsewhere in the body. 

Now, Mr Robinson is urging others not to be put off seeking help for potential signs of colon cancer, amid an explosion in cases of the disease in young people. 

Recalling how the initial signs of his cancer were dismissed he said: ‘ I thought it was stress related, because it had come on rapidly while we were getting stuff ready for the wedding.

‘We were planning on a “princess wedding” but we were working very, very hard for it and I was working a minimum of 60 hours per week.

‘It got really bad and I passed the most insane amount of blood so I phoned my GP and they told me to go to A&E straight away.

‘When I saw the doctor I mentioned to him that my great nan had died of colon cancer but he said there was no chance and that I was too young.

‘The wedding was so consuming and I was being told by every health professional that I definitely didn’t have cancer.

‘They were saying “you’re fine, don’t worry, go and get married” so I took their word for it.’

But, after experiencing rapid weight loss following his wedding, Mr Robinson was still worried.

He claims to have repeatedly tried to get another GP appointment for his symptoms but was unsuccessful.

Instead, it was only after his wife Jasmin, 27, ‘stormed in’ to the surgery demanding he be seen that his GP relented and referred him for a colonoscopy.    

‘That’s when they found a tumour the size of an orange in my colon,’ Mr Robinson said. 

‘I was dreading getting the results back. I was told I had stage four colon cancer, which had spread to my liver. It was the worst news possible.

‘It absolutely crushed my wife. Aside from it happening to her, it was the worst possible news I ever could have had.’

He immediately started immunotherapy, a treatment where medics use drugs to help the body’s immune system identify and attack cancer cells.

Mr Robinson said his medics were shocked when they found this had shrunk the tumour by 90 per cent. 

‘Even my oncologist was stunned, she was over the moon,’ he said.

However, he added: ‘But if they’d found it in May then they might have been able to give me a treatment before it had spread to my liver.

Looking back on his battle to get a diagnosis he said it was ‘frustrating’ to know more could have been done. 

‘I was 34 at the time so I know when something’s not right, you know your own body,’ he said. 

‘When I rang the GP, I thought they would have made more of a thing of it but it just seemed like they didn’t want to know.’

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board, who oversee NHS GP services in the area, said: ‘People are often the best judge of what’s “normal” for their bodies.

‘NHS advice is always to encourage anyone with worrying symptoms to seek advice and to ask again if they are still worried.

‘If patients are concerned or unhappy about the care they receive from their GP practice, we encourage them to first of all contact their practice’s patient services team.

‘If they feel that the practice hasn’t resolved their concerns, they can then get in touch with the integrated care board’s patient experience team who will discuss the options open to them.

‘We have not previously been made aware of this case but can follow it up on the patient’s behalf if they contact us and give their permission for us to do this.’

A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust also said: ‘We aim to provide outstanding care to all our patients and we are very sorry for what has happened to Mr Robinson.

‘Our thoughts are with Mr Robinson and his family at this difficult time.’

Mr Robinson’s ordeal comes as experts continue to warn of a disturbing rise in bowel cancers, a form of the disease that includes colon cancer, in under 50s, which has baffled doctors around the globe.

The disease, the third most common cancer in the UK, is the same type that killed Dame Deborah James at age 40 in 2022. 

Although the vast majority of diagnoses affect those aged over 50, rates in older age-groups has either declined or held stable while diagnoses in younger adults have risen by 50 per cent over the last 30 years.

Doctors have suggested obesity, antibiotic over-use, mobile phone radiation and even invisible particles of plastic in drinking water are potential triggers. 

However, a growing number of experts are also pointing ultra-processed foods as a cause. 

About 44,000 cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed every year in the UK and 142,000 in the US, making it the fourth most common cancer in both countries.

Bowel cancer symptoms include changes in bowel movements such as consistent and new diarrhoea or constipation, needing or feeling the need to poo more or less frequently and blood in the stool.

Stomach pain, a lump in the stomach, bloating, unexpected weight-loss and fatigue are among other common signs. 

Anyone experiencing these symptoms should contact their GP for advice.