Vanessa Gomez didn’t have time to get colon cancer.

She got it anyway — at 40 years old, five years before routine screening for colorectal cancer is recommended.

Thanks to self-advocacy and an expert medical team, she’s cancer-free now. But her story could have ended very differently if she hadn’t done these five things.

1. Pay attention to warning signs.

Gomez works full-time in human relations, co-owns a cleaning business with her mom and sisters, and supports her sons Vincent, 10, and Omari, 6, in school and soccer alongside her husband of 16 years, Will. “I’m always on the go,” Gomez said.

In September 2025, she noticed blood in her stool — her only symptom.

When it happened a second time, she called her family medicine doctor.

Gomez had enough blood to turn the toilet bowl red and saw a mixture of mucus and blood in her stool.

Gomez’s takeaway: “Pay attention to your poop. It’s gross to talk about, but people need to be aware.”

2. Know — or learn — your insurance benefits.

Gomez’s family medicine doctor referred her to a gastroenterologist who could see her — in two months.

That felt too far away, as her bleeding was recurring. “I was beyond concerned, and I wanted to be seen,” Gomez said.

Gomez called her corporate human relations office to discuss her medical benefits and learned that her insurance didn’t require a referral to see a gastroenterologist. So Gomez called other practices until she found an earlier appointment.

3. Recognize your risk — even if you’re not old enough for routine screening.

Routine screening for colorectal cancer isn’t recommended until age 45 unless a person has medical or family history that increases their risk.

Gomez was only 40, with no family history of colorectal cancer and no other obvious risk factors — but she was having symptoms.

So her gastroenterologist scheduled her for a colonoscopy. (A diagnostic colonoscopy is performed based on symptoms; a screening colonoscopy is performed based on age.)

The anesthesia was still wearing off when Gomez’s gastroenterologist said the words: I suspect you have cancer.

“I looked at my husband and teared up,” Gomez said. “But I didn’t have time to be emotional about it — I had to go and do.”

Her tissue sample was being sent for biopsy. She’d need to go get blood work and a CT scan.

And a few days later, it was confirmed: Although Gomez was too young for routine screening, she had colon cancer.

Gomez wasn’t alone. Rates of colorectal cancer are rising in adults under 50, according to a 2026 report by the American Cancer Society. And 3 in 4 adults in that age group are diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Gomez soon found out that her cancer was stage 3, meaning it had spread beyond her colon to nearby lymph nodes. But her doctors had a plan — and Gomez was ready for it.

Gomez’s takeaway: “There are so many success stories of people surviving different types of cancers if they’re paying attention and it’s caught early. If you’re having symptoms, listen to your body and tell your doctor. It would be a different conversation if I waited until I was 45.”

The diseased part of Gomez’s colon needed to be removed.

So Gomez was sent to colon and rectal surgeon Dr. David Hiller of Novant Health Colon & Rectal Clinic - Clemmons, who immediately put the couple at ease — talking soccer before surgery. He “was amazing at telling me everything I needed to know to prepare for surgery and recovery,” Gomez said.

On Nov. 24, 2025, Hiller performed robotic-assisted surgery, removing Gomez’s sigmoid colon and 14 lymph nodes, and reconnecting the healthy sections of her colon.

Then she met medical oncologist and hematologist Dr. Anastasia Tsagianni of Novant Health Cancer Institute - Forsyth to begin chemotherapy.

The stakes were clear: With surgery alone, the risk of colon cancer recurrence is 50%. But if a patient does chemotherapy too, “that risk goes down to about 20%,” Tsagianni (pronounced “Ta-ganny”) said.

Gomez’s toughest moment was hearing the potential side effects of chemotherapy.

“That was probably the most vulnerable I have felt,” Gomez said. “Just hearing all the things I hadn't let myself think about, and just the thought of my kids seeing me sick.”

Gomez’s takeaway: “Make sure somebody’s with you when you go to major appointments. My husband helped me so much with comforting me and also paying attention. There were things I didn’t quite remember after I left.”

Gomez also recommends seeking therapy — especially if you’re in a caregiving role and have to “put the wall back up” to reassure those you care for.

5. Focus on the positive.

At first, Gomez told herself that the side effects of chemotherapy weren’t going to take her down. “Boy, was I wrong,” Gomez said. “They knocked me off my feet.”

It was hard to watch her husband, sisters, and friends fill her usual roles — cooking, helping her sons with homework, and getting them to school and soccer.

“I always do stuff for people — I’ve never been the person getting help,” Gomez said. “I just had to take a deep breath and take a step back.”

Instead of focusing on what she needed help with, she tried to cultivate gratitude toward her helpers.

Gomez developed other coping skills, too:

• Use a countdown: When she felt miserable, Gomez used countdowns to cope: “Just two more chemotherapy treatments to go. I can do this.”
• Take it one moment at a time: Gomez would tell herself, “Just breathe through this moment,” “I can eat this one meal,” or “I’m not going to throw up this morning.”
• Remind yourself of your goals: Resting was difficult for Gomez, but she visualized what she wanted to do when she was healthy again. “That’s what drove me: I want to be at practice, I want to be at games, I want to be involved with school field trips … so I need to just lay here and recover.”
• Seek information from positive places: Gomez warned that your mind can “spiral” a bit during treatment. “Don’t get wrapped up in the scaries on the internet,” Gomez said. Instead, trust your providers and look for success stories.

And you’re reading one: In February 2026, Gomez completed her final chemotherapy treatment. She will continue regular scans and blood work, but “we can call her cancer-free,” Tsagianni said.

Gomez is still working on getting her energy back — but she’s having more good days than bad, and is grateful for her family, friends, and “the trust between doctor and patient.”

Her journey has also brought new meaning to her job for a medical linen company, where Gomez always told new hires, “We're not the frontline … but we can make patients feel comfortable in a clean gown and a clean sheet because sometimes patients are getting the worst news of their life on our sheets, in our gowns,” Gomez said.

This hits more personally now.

“I never thought I'd be in those gowns having the surgery, or in the infusion room with our curtains hung up,” Gomez said. “I feel different about the whole company. What we do matters.”