'I'd always been a curvy girl. By the time the truth came out, I'd turned to skin and bone'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

When Morgan Underwood first started needing the toilet more than usual, she didn’t think anything of it. The 22-year-old endured the strange symptom until she noticed blood and mucus in her stool, prompting her to seek a doctor for help.

Morgan was initially told she had irritable bowel syndrome, known as IBS, a common condition that causes stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link But as her health continued to deteriorate, the then-teenager began feeling 'petrified' to leave the house in fear of not being near a toilet.

Morgan, a former ambulance assistant from the Springfield area of Wigan, said: “I would avoid going on meals as it would just go straight through me. “It then also started to affect my working life as I worked on ambulances as an ambulance assistant. “I would be too scared to eat during my 12 to 13 hour shifts as I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be able to make it to the toilet in time, which then led to me feeling physically exhausted and extremely run down.” Worried by her worsening condition, Morgan returned to her GP for a stool sample in late 2022.

The results raised concerns and a colonoscopy was carried out, however it could not be completed as the teenager was in too much pain.