‘My world stopped’: Anal cancer survivor Dr Mary Birdsall on stigma and support

All Mary Birdsall​ noticed first was a little bit of blood.

The “fittest 59-year-old [she] knew,” clocking up 60–70 hours a week working as a gynaecologist and running Fertility Associates - life was “full on” for Birdsall.

So when she noticed the bleeding when she would use the bathroom, she initially put it down to haemorrhoids.

But thinking as a doctor, aged nearly 60, Birdsall sought out a colonoscopy, as she “wasn’t going to be caught out”.

Read the full article on Stuff here.