A ‘fit and healthy’ mum was slapped with a ‘death sentence’ after bloating and stomach cramps turned out to be signs she had terminal bowel cancer.
Cecilia Capolupo, 46, went to her GP after coming back ‘bloated’ from a family holiday to Devon where they feasted on Cornish pasties and fish and chips.
Ms Capolupo, originally from Argentina but now living in Clapham, London, said: ‘I came back bloated from holiday, then had stomach cramps and went to get checked out.’
The mother-of-two was told she was likely suffering from an infection, but a colonoscopy revealed she had stage-four bowel cancer in September 2025.
Doctors explained an eight-centimetre tumour had spread to the finance worker’s abdominal wall, liver and lungs – leaving her with two years to live.
She said: ‘I went to a routine colonoscopy and they gave me a death sentence on the same day.
‘I had a panic attack which I’ve never had in my life. I woke up at two o’clock (in the morning) crying.
‘I don’t wish this for anybody.
Cecilia Capolupo has been given two years to live after being diagnosed with bowel cancer
‘On the weekends, I call my friends and family to tell them I’m dying and say goodbye.’
Ms Capolupo’s nightmare began in August last year, when she had a week’s getaway in Devon with her Scottish husband Mark, 45, and two boys Máximo, six and Rocco, four.
Before the trip, the ‘always slim’ Pilates loving mum ‘felt so healthy and never thought about having stomach checks’.
Five days after returning home with bloating and stomach cramps, she clocked ‘a tiny bit of red’ in her poo.
Having gone to her GP to be checked ‘straight away’, Ms Capolupo was assured it was probably an infection but booked in for a ‘routine’ colonoscopy at Lister Hospital on September 26.
On the day, she ‘knew it was bad news’ when Mark was called in from the waiting room to listen to medics.
‘They said we have something that looks like a tumour,’ she said.
‘It was a massive shock. I never had the typical symptoms. Never constipated or had diarrhoea. I go to the loo perfectly fine.
Ms Capolupo is now undergoing chemotherapy to prolong her life
She was diagnosed after a family holiday to Cornwall
‘The same day, the consultant called me and said it was incurable.
‘He said you have it everywhere – all my abdominal wall, liver and lungs.
‘I thought ‘how can it be my lungs? I do bike class, I go dancing with my friends until 2 o’clock in the morning’.’
Ms Capolupo now has fortnightly chemotherapy sessions as well as receiving treatment at home.
After four rounds of chemo, she feels ‘like a 90-year-old lady’ with the ‘worst hangover of all time’.
She said: ‘I’m not planning to die any time soon.
‘The doctors told me I probably have two years.
‘In five years with stage-four cancer, there is a 13 per cent survival rate.
‘I’m going for it and more if I can.
‘I’m planning on going back to work. I have to get on with my life.
‘I’ve started going back to my Pilates class.’
Bowel cancer is the UK’s third most-common cancer, affecting one in 20 women and one in 15 men.
While Australia has rolled out universal bowel screenings for people aged 45 and up, patients in England, Scotland and Wales are only sent faecal test kits from age 50.
Ms Capolupo said: ‘I rushed when I had my first symptom and it was too late.
‘If I had had the check at 45, I’d be in a much better situation.’
