Emma lost her mum, Sue to bowel cancer in 2009. Emma shares Sue’s story.

In 2006, aged 62, Sue was diagnosed with a tumour in her bowel, after experiencing the initial symptom of diarrhoea.

“They operated, but because the tumour was next to her caecum they couldn’t get the full 1cm clearance around it. On one side next to the caecum they could only get a couple of mm.”

When Sue came to visit Emma in Sydney for a holiday a couple of years later in 2008, she had a very bloated stomach which had become much worse because of the flight.

“She felt uncomfortable and couldn’t eat a lot and was constipated. I took her to the drs, and she ended up at St Vincent’s hospital where they said the cancer had spread to her ovaries, and that it was termina and the stomach bloating was ascites (build-up of fluid in the abdomen). They said she had less than a year. She’d had a check up and colonoscopy the month before and they had been checking her liver. At that stage they didn’t check ovaries, because it usually spreads to liver and less often to ovaries.”

Emma returned to the UK to care for her mum.

“I went home from Australia to look after her and as my dad had died when I was 10 and my sisters had their own families, I became her main carer.”

Sue and Emma completed the Race for Life in the UK while Sue was having chemo. Sue sadly passed away in 2009 at just 64 years old.

“I was 30. She wasn’t at my wedding and didn’t meet my kids.”

Sue was a very sociable and well-liked person. She had lots of friends and a great sense of humour. She was practical, loved gardening, and could be quite extroverted around her friends. She loved dressing up for murder mystery parties.

Sue loved the Jenny Joseph poem ‘Warning’, so for her final birthday (her 64th) she celebrated with a purple-themed party inspired by the poem.

“We all dressed up for it. At her funeral, everyone wore a touch of purple too.”

With her family history, Emma now has regular colonoscopies. She’s had polyps removed, including one that was pre-cancerous.

“Everyone in my family is at risk of developing colon cancer earlier in life and need to be checked from an earlier age.”

Emma’s running the 2026 City2Surf in Sue’s memory to raise funds for the Jodi Lee Foundation – to help spare other families from going through what hers did.
You can support her fundraising here.

Thank you Emma for sharing Sue’s story and for supporting the Foundation.