Eight weeks after he had seen his GP nurse Jack’ Constable’s tumour had grown to the size of a watermelon. It was Katie Constable’s 50th birthday when doctors delivered the life-changing news that her 17-year-old son Jack had a rare cancer – just months after he’d been told by a GP nurse that it was nothing but a pulled muscle.
![[Jack Constable prior to his diagnosis in 2023]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/20/11/IMG_6619.jpg)
“Jack had no symptoms whatsoever…he’s six foot three, he was slim,” his mother said. “He was a normal healthy lad. There weren’t any symptoms. ‘Then he said one day omg what is this lump I’ve got cancer.”. “We went to see a nurse practitioner. She lifted Jack’s shirt she didn’t even touch him or examine him and within two minutes we were out she said ‘oh it’s just a pulled muscle don’t do anything and if it doesn’t go down come back in eight weeks’. Then to be told he’s got cancer was just horrendous.”.
![[Jack at the hairdresser with his friends during his treatment]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/20/12/IMG_6621.jpg)
Jack is one of the rising number of children and young people being diagnosed with cancer in the UK but experts warn the current NHS cancer targets are not adequate for the age group. This month new research revealed early onset bowel cancer in those aged 25 to 49 is increasing globally, but England is among the countries with the biggest rise, averaging a 3.6 per cent increase every year.
As figures such as Kate Middleton have shared stories this year of their cancer diagnosis awareness around the problem is growing. However, NHS clinicians speaking with The Independent have said the sharp rise is worrying and will require the government to shift its approach to cancer diagnosis.
