See the story of our patient Kate who, when five-months pregnant, needed emergency bowel cancer surgery.

Internationally, this surgery is very rarely performed during pregnancy and it was a first for the surgical team led by Jacob McCormick, a specialist Colorectal Surgeon at Peter Mac and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

This story, which aired nationally on The Project last night, marks Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and also highlights rising rates of this cancer in younger Australians.

Bowel Cancer Australia is calling for the screening age to be lowered to 45 from the current 50 years.

Watch the story: