article_snippet: Seven years ago, aged 30, I was lying in a hospital bed, heavily sedated after a colonoscopy to find the cause of months of abdominal pain, when my gastroenterologist delivered the news: .
article_snippet: Had We not removed this, you could have been dead by 40.’ Because such growths are rare for someone so young, I was told I would need to have colonoscopies every three years to (hopefully) catch any further abnormalities.
article_snippet: ‘Colonoscopies every 18 months or so to catch any polyps before they become malignant, and daily aspirin.
article_snippet: (A recent review of studies on aspirin by Queen Mary University of London concluded that a daily low dose for ten years can reduce the risk of colon cancer by 35 per cent.)