A 31-YEAR-OLD cancer survivor is urging women to sign up to take part in Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life.

Amy Lewis was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2012 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to fight the disease.

Weeks after her chemotherapy ended, Amy took part in a fundraising Race For Life and she has now spoken of her experiences to encourage people to work together to fight cancer.

Amy, a finance manager at Costcutter Supermarkets Group HQ in Dunnington, said: “I’m flying the flag in the fight against cancer as I’m determined to show this devastating disease who’s boss.

“By taking part in Race For Life, we can raise money for life-saving research and help more people like me survive.”

Amy has supported the event since 2006 when her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. It was following her death in 2011, Amy herself was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

She said: “It was getting really uncomfortable when I went to the toilet. It got to the point where I was surviving on painkillers and I also started noticing blood on occasions.”

Amy was referred by her GP for hospital tests, but her appointment to be assessed kept being cancelled.

“My boyfriend, now my husband, said I needed to get checked out, so in April 2012 I went to A&E at St James’ Hospital in Leeds,” she said.

“They did some blood tests and immediately decided to keep me in because the readings were abnormal.

“I had a sigmoidoscopy, which examines the lower bowel, but that came back negative, so they continued to keep me in hospital and then did a full colonoscopy which revealed a tumour in my rectum.

“Not in a million years had I suspected bowel cancer. It all happened really, really quickly and was very surreal, especially after what had happened to my grandmother.

“Sometimes I felt like it wasn’t really happening to me and I just got on with things, but at other times I was in almost total despair. It was the biggest shock I have had in my life.”

Amy started three months of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour and then had a course of radiotherapy which she completed in October 2012, followed two months later by extensive surgery.

She said: “They removed the tumour as well as 69 lymph nodes, two of which were found to be cancerous. I then had another three months of chemotherapy which finished in May 2013.”

She now undergoes regular check ups and is doing well.

Just a few weeks after Amy’s chemotherapy ended, she took part in the Liverpool Race for Life with an old university friend.

She is urging women across York to show their fighting spirit and sign up as soon as possible for the York Race For Life 5k, 10k or Pretty Muddy events on the weekend of July 4 and 5, at raceforlife.org