Woman diagnosed with incurable colorectal cancer aged 20 warns of the early signs that are easy to dismiss
Topics: Cancer, Health, New Zealand, News, TikTok
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/dominiquemcshain
Topics: Cancer, Health, New Zealand, News, TikTok
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
A young woman who was diagnosed with terminal cancer aged 20 has shared what early signs of the illness she experienced.
Last year, Dominique McShain received a heartbreaking diagnosis shortly before her 21st birthday.
Dominique, who was a third-year psychology student at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the time, was diagnosed with incurable colorectal cancer.
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Doctors gave her one to five years to live, and Dominique has been documenting her health journey on TikTok ever since.
She shared her first video on the matter in May 2024, where Dominique pledged to 'make a difference' and raise awareness about her cancer and its symptoms.
In another video, Dominique revealed what alerted her to health issues.
Upon starting her third year of university, she found that she 'fatigued all the time' and because she was so tired she 'wasn't taking anything in' in her classes.
"I'd have a normal night's sleep but then sleep another five to six hours every single day," Dominique went on.
"The other thing I had was blood in my stool. I kept switching between constipation and diarrhoea and normal [poo], but I always had blood in my stool. That was not fun."
She waited three to four weeks before getting checked out because Dominique worried that if she went too soon that doctors would dismiss her symptoms.
Eventually she had her bloods taken and while her general ones were fine, her liver blood samples were 'abnormally high'.
Following a second blood test, her doctors noticed some changes and Dominique was told she needed an ultrasound. Sadly the scan revealed that she had some 'massive lumps'.
Prior to the ultrasound, she also started to experience abdominal pain and severely lost her appetite as a result.
"I got real dizzy standing as well," Dominique added.
She continued to feel unwell and ultimately had a biopsy, which confirmed that she had cancer.
Dominique has continued to keep her 194,000 TikTok followers posted on her progress, and gave a heartbreaking update in recent days.
As per a post she shared to her profile, Dominique's cancer has grown and spread to her lungs.
With this in mind, oncologists have predicted that she only had a year left to live. In a follow-up video, Dominique said the devastating news was 'like getting re-diagnosed again'.
The young woman has a Give A Little page to help fund things like treatment, and living expenses. You can donate here.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.