‘I never saw blood’: MOBO founder Kanya King reveals easy-to-dismiss signs of colon cancer that’s left her with months to live
The founder of the MOBO awards, Kanya King, has told of the devastation that came with learning the stomach pain she thought was food poisoning was in fact terminal bowel cancer — and she had just months to live.
Ms King, 55, was given the life-ruining news in September after months of struggling with fatigue and abdominal pain, but doctors didn’t suspect it was cancer as she didn’t have what is often considered the telltale sign — blood in the stool.
She first started to feel tired in 2023 which she put down to her demanding job and an overactive thyroid.
She rarely got ill, always exercised, had a healthy diet and didn’t drink alcohol.
But one day she found herself struggling to get up the stairs of her home in East London, but still pushed herself to exercise in the hopes that it would help her feel better, she told The Times in an interview.
Ms King’s startling diagnosis comes amid the shocking rise in the disease among younger people, including those who have super healthy lifestyles.
Official data show colon cancer rates have increased 52 per cent among 25-to-49 year-olds since the early 90s.
In the end, it was Ms King’s endocrinologist who raised alarm bells, and suspected her fatigue was a sign of something more serious.
Kanya King, 55, chief executive of the event which celebrates and elevates black music in the UK, first announced her shock diagnosis in December and admitted it was an ‘unexpected reality’ (pictured in June 2024)
Although Ms King had noticed changes in her bowel movements, these had been off and on and she didn’t suspect the symptom was a sign of something sinister.
‘I assumed it was the overactive thyroid — and I did get my bowel back on track. There were so many things my symptoms could have been. I never once saw blood,’ she told the newspaper.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2024 that she went to the GP after a salad left her feeling so ill she had to crawl back into bed to sleep it off.
The doctor ran several tests for deficiencies that are associated with tiredness, such a iron and vitamin D — which all came back clear.
But knowing there was something wrong she went back again and a doctor suspected it could be gastroenteritis, also known as the stomach flu or food poisoning.
Eventually she did an initial bowel cancer test which came back negative, before she finally took a faecal immunochemical test (FIT).
The test, which is 99 per cent accurate at detecting traces of blood, came back positive.
Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss a s a result of these symptoms
Ms King had a colonoscopy and then a scan, where doctors found a tumour.
Then, in September 2024, she finally received the devastating news that she had stage 4 bowel cancer that had spread to her liver and lymph nodes and was told it was terminal.
Her care would be palliative and that she had six months left to live.
Now, Ms King is on her fourth round of chemotherapy. She did her research and requested tweaks to the type and the dosage of her chemo, plus she eliminated all potentially carcinogenic foods from her diet and sticks to organic vegetables.
There are around 44,000 cases of bowel cancer every year in the UK and 142,000 in the US, making it the fourth most common cancer in both countries.
But cases are rising in young people, an alarming trend that experts have linked to modern diets, chemical exposure and lifestyles.
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.
It’s thought that 50 per cent of cases are preventable, with 28 per cent of cases linked to eating too little fibre. That’s in comparison to 13 per cent caused by processed meat.
There is an NHS screening programme, which automatically sends out FIT home-testing kits if you are between 54 and 74 and registered with a GP.
For the at home test, called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT), you need to collect a small sample and send it to a lab. It’s then checked for tiny amounts of blood.
If your test is positive, you will be invited for a colonoscopy where doctors can find your cancer early before symptoms start. Doctors may also find and remove polyps, preventing them from growing into colorectal cancer.
Catching bowel cancer early can be life-saving. But for Ms King, she slipped through the net — fatigue can be caused by numerous illnesses and she did not take part in the home-screening test.
She now stresses the importance of advocating for your health, even if you just don’t ‘feel yourself’.
