Woman, 42, Who Survived Colon Cancer 3 Times Shares Big Symptom She Hid At First

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IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.Skip to ContentAdd to GoogleNew Colorectal Cancer Guidelines 2026: What You Need to Know06:20Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 5, 2026, 2:56 PM EDTBy Danielle Ripley-Burgess and A. PawlowskiAt 42, Danielle Ripley-Burgess has survived colon cancer three times. She was first diagnosed at 17, then at 25 and then again at 39, making her a part of the trend of colorectal cancer rates surging in younger people. The Kansas City, Missouri, mom shared her story with TODAY.com and urged others to speak up about their symptoms.

Danielle Ripley-Burgess shares her experience with being diagnosed with colon cancer three times and the syndrome that could be behind it all.Courtesy Danielle Ripley-BurgessI had a cancer everyone thought old people get.

I thought, I’m eating something red and that’s probably what I see. So I put myself on a “no red foods diet” and stopped eating anything that was red in color: everything from candy to pizza to salsa to raspberry Popsicles.

It took me a while to accept that I was actually seeing blood, but I still hid it from just about everybody I knew. I was already embarrassed about puberty changes happening, so that on top of this thing was just too much. I didn’t want to be sick and I didn’t feel sick at first.

But it was nagging at me, so about a year or two later, I did mention something to my mom. We looked it up online, and we saw it was probably hemorrhoids. She said blood in stool could also indicate something more serious, but it was something for people who were my grandparents’ ages.

I was like, “great, I have hemorrhoids,” and went on with my life. In high school, seeing blood in the stool became something very normal, even as it got redder, darker and scarier. Eventually, I had some intense stomach pain, and I was getting fatigued. I couldn’t play volleyball anymore. I just wanted to come home and sleep.

When I was 16, I told my boyfriend I thought I needed to see a doctor, but I didn’t tell him the details. My mom overheard one of our conversations and realized I was still seeing blood. She told my dad and they called the doctor, who sent me to a gastroenterologist right away.

Just a few weeks after I turned 17, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. I had chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to remove the tumor. I also had surgery to move my ovaries up into my stomach to protect them from radiation. Doctors wanted to save the ovaries to preserve hormone function, but by elevating them, I couldn’t naturally conceive anymore.

Ripley-Burgess gets treatment for colon cancer as a teenager with her boyfriend Michael by her side. He would later become her husband.Courtesy Danielle Ripley-BurgessI thought I had beaten cancer. I was getting colonoscopies every three years, and after one of them, I woke up and saw the very same look on the doctor’s face that I had seen eight years prior. He saw a polyp that later turned out to be cancerous. I had no symptoms. At 25, I had Stage 1 colon cancer.

Mentally and emotionally, it was way harder this time. I got really angry at a lot of things, but deep down just angry at God — how could you let this happen to me again? By this point, I was married, I had a house, I was working on a career, we’d been talking about adopting a child. All of a sudden, I realized I could lose all of these things.

Ripley-Burgess was back in the hospital, with her husband by her side, when she was diagnosed with colon cancer again at 25.Courtesy Danielle Ripley-BurgessI don’t have any family history, and there was no explanation at first, but I found out I have Lynch syndrome, a genetic disease that puts you at a higher risk for several cancers, with colon and rectal cancers at the top of that list. I’m the first in my family to have the mutation.

Knowing that the next target for Lynch syndrome was going to be either uterine cancer or ovarian cancer, I had a hysterectomy to prevent that.

Part of my cancer story is a story of infertility. Adopting our daughter became our route to start a family. She’s 16 now, and we’ve also adopted a son, who is 5.

I also underwent a subtotal colectomy, which took out all of my colon except about 13 inches. If you don’t have a colon anymore, your risk goes down.

But in 2023, during my surveillance — which included yearly colonoscopies — my doctor found polyps and said, “It looks like cancer might be trying to come back again.”

I decided to get a permanent ileostomy, where that remaining little bit of colon was removed. They sent it to pathology and found Stage 1 colon cancer — fortunately, all contained in that tissue.

I wasn’t expecting it, but I also wasn’t completely shocked. Living with Lynch syndrome, I’m always aware that it’s a possibility. It’s always in my mind: Could this symptom or this pain or this odd thing happening in my body be something major?

Ripley-Burgess with her husband. She eventually had her entire colon removed.Courtesy Danielle Ripley-BurgessAt this point, I’ve had just about every surgery I could have to prevent cancer. I have no colon left. I can never get colorectal cancer again, and that was a relief.

More and more young people like me are getting colorectal cancer.

If I could go back and tell my younger self something, it would be: Don’t be embarrassed about your body.

If you’re seeing something with your body that’s uncomfortable and weird, and you’re not ready yet to tell a doctor, tell somebody — a friend or family member. Don’t sit in that place of: something is wrong with your body, and you don’t know what it is. Don’t sit there alone. Don’t downplay what you’re seeing.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleDanielle Ripley-BurgessDanielle Ripley-Burgess is a three-time colorectal cancer survivor, and the author of “Blush: How I Barely Survived 17” and “365 Days of Strength for Difficult Times.” She is the chief operating officer of the GI Cancers Alliance.

A. PawlowskiA. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.