Mariana Tata, 26, lived with persistent bloating for nearly a year and didn’t know what to make of it. At times, she chalked it up to normal changes around her menstrual cycle. Other times, she wondered if it was a gut issue—especially since friends around her had Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Then, in April, something changed: she saw blood in her stool. Rectal bleeding is one of the most common warning signs of colon cancer in younger adults.
“That alarmed me a little bit,” Tata told Business Insider.
When the bleeding didn’t stop after a month, she contacted her primary care physician. The doctor suspected hemorrhoids but ordered additional testing as a precaution—especially because Tata had previously been diagnosed with anemia and her symptoms had recently worsened.
An abdominal scan revealed a 20-centimeter tumor on one of her ovaries. Tata was referred to Syracuse Hospital in New York, where further tests led to a diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer. By that point, the cancer had spread to her abdominal wall.
Soon after, surgeons removed both ovaries and fallopian tubes. The procedure meant Tata would no longer be able to have biological children.
Still undergoing treatment, she remembers the disbelief.
“When you’re young, you don’t think that it’s cancer,” she said. “Colon cancer was not in my mind at all.”
Cancer forced a sudden rewrite of her future
Before her diagnosis, Tata and her boyfriend had been talking seriously about building a life together—buying a home and having children.
Everything shifted when she needed surgery to remove the large mass on her right ovary. She later learned her left ovary was also damaged.
“There was no option to save any of my eggs,” Tata said. That means if she chooses to become a parent later, she may need to pursue IVF using donated eggs or embryos.
For now, she said she’s trying to let go of the idea of having children.
The cost of treatment also forced her to rethink other goals, including buying a house. Before she reached her deductible, she said she was “scraping together” money to cover ER visits, scans, blood work, and other testing. Friends organized a GoFundMe to help, but she’s still paying bills—one from the summer was nearly $1,000—and expects more expenses ahead.
“It is very rough, especially in your 20s and 30s when you plan on using your money for something else and then you get hit with cancer,” she said. “You have to reevaluate what you’re actually spending your money on.”
Splitting time between her boyfriend and her parents
Tata now moves between two homes based on her chemotherapy schedule. The night before treatment, she leaves the apartment she shares with her boyfriend and stays with her parents. Since her boyfriend works and her parents are retired, she said her parents can provide more constant care.
“My mom is the one who nurses me back to health, basically,” Tata said, describing how her mother helps manage nausea and medications. “My family has been absolutely amazing, and I think my being so strong comes from them because they carry me whenever I can’t do it anymore.”
Tata had part of her colon removed before starting chemotherapy. She feels she often recovers faster than some other patients she’s spoken with, and during the weeks without chemo, she sometimes almost forgets she has cancer as she focuses on rebuilding strength.
But disconnecting from the chemo pump is a different story.
“It kind of punches you in the face and reminds you every two weeks that you have to go through this and you are sick,” she said. “It’s kind of just my new reality.”
Finding support — and learning how to process it all
For now, Tata said her condition is stable, with no cancer progression as she continues chemotherapy.
“My oncologist expects me to go back to work in February, which is very nice,” she said. Tata works as an enrollment operations assistant at Utica University and went on short-term and long-term disability during treatment.
She hopes that once chemotherapy ends, her treatment schedule will be less intense, allowing her to return more fully to everyday life.
She also said connecting with other colon cancer patients helped her cope. She found support through the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and a Facebook group, which made her feel less isolated and more comfortable speaking about what she’s going through.
“At the beginning of my diagnosis, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” she said. “I felt so alone, and I wasn’t ready to talk to people.”
Her advice: Push for answers and consider a second opinion
Tata said her experience made her more aware of how cancer rates are rising among younger people—and how easily subtle symptoms can be dismissed.
“I feel like young people are the margin of the forgotten who do face this,” she said.
Because signs can seem minor at first, she urges others to act quickly if something feels off.
“Go to the doctor, no matter how big or small it is,” she said. “Because what I thought was a small thing turned into a very big thing.”
She also encourages people to advocate for themselves and seek second opinions if necessary, noting that “not a lot of doctors jump when you notice bleeding in your stool.” In her case, she believes early action made a major difference.
“If my doctor didn’t recommend a CT scan or abdominal scan, I don’t know where I would be right now,” she said.
