With Cancer Cases Rising Among Young People, A Claremore Woman Shares Her Story

Toby Keith's death this week from stomach cancer has more people talking about the disease.

The American Cancer Society said it's seeing a lot of younger people being diagnosed with cancer.

Dr. Ajay Jain with OU Health said stomach cancer isn't very common, with about five percent of people getting it.

He says young people who get stomach cancer usually because it's hereditary.

Dr. Ajay Jain said stomach cancer doesn't cause obvious symptoms until it's more advanced because the stomach stretches, so a tumor wouldn't make you feel full or cause pain.

"The most common symptom that people have is fatigue because gastric cancers will slowly bleed, and you may not even notice it because it's bleeding into your GI track, and people may notice darker stools but they can become anemic and fatigued," Dr. Ajay Jain said.

Other symptoms include weight loss, heartburn, and stomach aches.

 Dr. Jain said obesity, smoking, and salt can increase the risk of getting stomach cancer.

The good news is that if it is caught early, there is a 90 percent cure rate.

The American Cancer Society said more young people are getting cancer, especially colon cancer.

Jordan Henry from Claremore is battling colon cancer right now.

"There are still days I wake up and I'm like oh yeah this is for real I have cancer and I'm only 32 years old," she said.

Last May, Jordan said she was having digestion issues, blood in her stool, fatigue, and night sweats.

"I'm a mom of a toddler I work full time we kind of ignore those things as moms and I was like well you know I'm going to have my PCP work in May and everything came back completely normal, " Henry said.

Then Jordan got a colonoscopy that showed a 6-millimeter tumor.

She had chemo to shrink the tumor and learned during surgery that the cancer had spread to her liver, so she's doing more chemo.

Jordan is determined to keep fighting.

"That was never a doubt in my mind that I wasn't going to fight because I have a husband and a beautiful daughter and a family who loves me," Henry said. 

Jordan has two more rounds of chemo, then will have surgery to remove half of her liver and remove the tumor in her colon.

You can help Jordan by donating HERE. 

There is a cancer fundraiser for Jordan on March 14 at noon on Facebook Live where you can enter a raffle, all proceeds will go to the Henry Family.

Details for that raffle can be found HERE.