Exclusive | I was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer at 33 this was the symptom I initially dismissed

When she was crowned Mrs.Mississippi Plus America last year, Bryce Ramsey immediately knew what her platform would be.“Hands down, colon cancer awareness,” Ramsey, 39, told The Post.

“At the time, I was a four-year survivor, and I was like, ‘I just want to be able to help as many people as I can.'”With March being Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Ramsey is also working with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to share her story.She hopes to encourage people to get screened for the disease — her journey has already revealed that colon cancer is more common in her family than she thought.Friends and family were stunned when Ramsey learned in 2019 that she had Stage 3 colon cancer at the age of 33.

Colorectal cancer typically affects people over 50, but there’s been a concerning uptick in diagnoses among younger adults.Ramsey was not as surprised by the news.As an operating room nurse, she knew the importance of listening to her body.“In my spirit, I just knew something wasn’t right,” recalled Ramsey, who lives in Canton, Miss.Ramsey initially noticed blood in her stool after giving birth to son Ashton in 2011.

She dismissed it as hemorrhoids.The bleeding became more frequent in 2019 and included mucus, so she underwent a colonoscopy.The exam revealed that she had a 5-centimeter polyp in her sigmoid colon, the section of the colon that connects to the rectum.Shortly thereafter, doctors removed 3 feet of her colon and 13 lymph nodes.

Because the cancer had spread to three of these lymph nodes, Ramsey was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer.She begged her family members to get screened.Having first-degree relatives (parents, siblings or children) with colon cancer greatly increases the risk of developing the disease.“We found out that we do, in fact, have a significant family history,” Ramsey said.Her dad had his entire colon removed upon the discovery of several precancerous polyps, her brother is set to have a portion of his colon cut out, and...