FAMILY MATTERS

Rubbing my back, my husband James nudged me awake.

‘You OK?’ he asked. ‘You fell asleep.’ It was July 2018, and James, now 33, had been at work all day while I took care of our one-year-old son Henry.

It had been the same routine since Henry was born, but lately, I’d been feeling more exhausted than usual, would often fall asleep early. I put it down to looking after a toddler, but deep down, I knew there was more to it.

The night before, I’d found blood in the toilet, and the first thing that crossed my mind was bowel cancer.

My dad Derek had died of the disease in 2001, aged 53.

I knew