A woman who was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome has now been told her condition is actually terminal cancer.

Sue Griffiths, from Minster, Sheppey, was diagnosed with IBS in January last year after feeling unwell on New Year’s Eve.

After five months of treatment, the mother-of-five was still suffering from sickness and diarrhoea and was losing weight, so she returned to her GP and asked to be sent for a sigmoidoscopy, a procedure used to detect bowel cancer.

The results, which came back last May, revealed Sue actually had an aggressive form of bowel cancer - not IBS. She then had to have an emergency operation at Medway Maritime Hospital to remove cancerous cells from her bowel, which had ruptured beforehand.

The 56-year-old spent three-and-a-half weeks in hospital recovering from the procedure before going through 12 sessions of chemotherapy.

However, last month, the family’s world came crashing down when Sue was told the cancer was terminal.

Her husband Martin said: “We were told even worse news, that the cancer is terminal and there is no more they can do. It’s your worst nightmare.”

Martin has now set up a Go Fund Me page to try and raise money to pay for private treatment for his wife.

“Our only hope now is to go private,” the 52-year-old said. “The doctors said if Sue had another operation they would have to move major organs and she could die from it. That’s why they’re not willing to do it.”

He added: “Our world has come crashing down - something has to be done.

“We have found a private oncologist in Cambridge who may be able to help. It’s given us hope, but it comes at a cost.

“Most of the medication she needs is not available on the NHS, which is why we need to go private.”

Martin, who transports cars at Sheerness Docks for a living, set up the fundraising page at the end of August with an initial target of £20,000. So far, it has raised more than £11,200.

“It’s amazing the amount of people out there who are so caring,” he said. “It gives us hope that we can get the treatment that she needs and will be here for a lot longer.”

Martin added: “Before this, my wife didn’t want to talk about her situation at all but it’s perked her up a bit now.

“We have been together 22 years and between us we have five sons and a daughter.

“We don’t know how long Sue’s got left. We know the treatment won’t cure her, but it will be an extension and we will have more time together with our family.”

“We know the treatment won’t cure her, but it will be an extension and we will have more time together with our family...”

Martin said Sue’s illness had hit his family even more because they had a teenage son, who has autism, who did not understand what was going on.

“My boy is 14 and is autistic. He goes to Meadowfield School in Sittingbourne. We can’t tell him about his mum, he won’t understand,” Martin said. “He knows something is going on, especially when we have upset days.

“The other day, Sue and I were at the beach and he saw an elderly couple holding hands. He said to us ‘that’s going to be you two one day’. We just looked at each other and started crying.

“He looked at us and said ‘what’s wrong?’ and we said we had wind in our eyes. We just can’t tell him because he won’t understand.”

To add to the family’s heartache, Martin lost his brother Robert on Thursday to a suspected heart attack and two of his aunts have died from Covid-19.

“Our family really has been hit hard. It’s just one thing after another,” he said. “We really have been dealt horrible cards and need to see an end to this with something positive.”

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