Told he was 'too young' to have cancer, Rory died a year later

Told he was 'too young' to have cancer, Rory died a year later Fri 3 Jul 2026 at 7:47am For the past several months, Olivia Magnay-Shaw has been running to help cope with the grief of losing her partner, Rory Esler. Rory was 35 when he died from bowel cancer in September 2025, about 15 months after he first became seriously unwell. Olivia, 28, said Rory first began experiencing high fevers, severe cramping, and noticed large amounts of blood and mucus in his stool. Despite repeatedly raising concerns with doctors, nurses and specialists that his symptoms could be cancer, those fears were dismissed. "Rory was told he was too young to have cancer and that he looked fit and healthy,"Olivia said. Instead, Rory was told it was most likely irritable bowel syndrome and to follow a strict diet. No improvement But his condition did not improve. "He just was not getting better so he took himself to emergency and, even when we got to the hospital, we said to the nurses, 'We think he could have bowel cancer.' And they just laughed at us,"Olivia said. "They said, 'No, you don't have bowel cancer, you need to relax.' "But then Rory persisted and was like, 'I need to get a scan, I want to get a scan, so I'm just at peace of mind.'" After pushing for further investigation, Rory was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in June 2024. "Rory ended up getting a scan and they found a 5cm tumour in his colon,"Olivia said. "Unfortunately, we found it too late." Age bias common Bowel Cancer Australia chief executive Julien Wiggins said while cases of bowel cancer in people under 50 were rising, younger patients were often not taken seriously because of age bias. "Unfortunately, we hear this a lot,"Mr Wiggins said. "Because people think it is less common than those over the age of 50, they tend to dismiss symptoms, or they misdiagnose them, and therefore we have a more advanced disease by the time it is diagnosed, which is harder to treat, and we know the outcomes are poorer." This weekend, Olivia will join Rory's family and friends in the Gold Coast half marathon, running in his memory. For her, it is more than a race. It is a message to young Australians to trust what their bodies are telling them, to keep pushing for answers and to refuse to let their symptoms be dismissed because of their age. "Advocating for yourself is really important and, if you have blood in your stool or if you have loose stool or any change in your stool, go to your GP and take it seriously and don't let them say that you're too young for cancer because the research shows otherwise,"she said. Record-breaking marathon A record 43,000 runners will hit the streets for the Gold Coast Marathon festival this weekend, smashing last year's attendance record by 4,000. Events Management Queensland CEO Ben Mannion said demand had been so strong there was still a "huge amount" of people on the wait list. "Internationally, we've got over 4,100 runners this year [from 60 countries]," Mr Mannion said. With such huge numbers, organisers have ramped up safety and support measures after water supplies ran short during last year's race. The marathon's medical director, Hayley Frieslich, said an Australia-first "first aid runner" system trialled last year had now been expanded significantly. "These are medically trained people who we've done additional CPR training with to ensure that if anything happens along the course that we have the most rapid response available," she said. During Sunday's 42.2-kilometre race, 17 doctors and nurses will be present across the course, running alongside participants to respond quickly to any emergencies. "They're also there if you fall over, need a band-aid — and hopefully that's all you need if anything — but they can also help raise assistance if required," Dr Frieslich said. "Essentially, we consider them as pace runners, so they'll each be running at a pace, but we know that they're evenly spaced throughout the course. "So, they're there for the fastest, and they're there for those who are tackling their first marathon."