Ross Aldred was going to the gym, eating a vegan diet and had not touched alcohol in three years when lumps appeared on his neck. Within weeks, the 43-year-old British TV and film digital director learned he had stage 4 colon cancer that had already spread to his liver, spleen, lungs and the lymph nodes in his neck.
A video Aldred posted from his hospital bed, hooked up to an IV drip, has since been watched more than 2.7 million times and helped raise in excess of $300,000 through a GoFundMe campaign shared by celebrities including Dawn French and radio presenter Zoe Ball.
A diagnosis that began with a lump
Aldred said he first noticed a pea-sized lump on his neck while brushing his teeth. By the end of that week, there were two. He assumed it was a throat infection. His primary care doctor referred him urgently to hospital, but a specialist who reviewed his ultrasound told him it was likely a low-grade infection and that he had probably been run down.
A biopsy was performed on May 22. Within 24 hours, Aldred developed what he described as a hideous clamping feeling in his stomach. That bank holiday weekend, on his way to the theater, he vomited on the subway. Days later, he was vomiting blood.
At the emergency room, scans revealed growths on his liver, which doctors initially said were likely benign. A colonoscopy and upper endoscopy followed. On June 1, an oncologist told him he had stage 4 colon cancer. Only one in 10 patients diagnosed at that stage will still be alive five years later.
Aldred said he found it very difficult to make the connection between lumps in his neck and colon cancer, and that he had been doing everything right in terms of diet and exercise.
A cascade of complications
Surgeons first performed surgery to create a stoma after finding an 11-inch tumor was blocking his colon. While he was recovering, doctors found that tumors in his liver were blocking ducts needed to flush waste products from his body. Toxins built up, causing jaundice and putting him at high risk of liver failure. Without a functioning liver, chemotherapy would not have been safe to administer.
Dr. Ravindhi Murphy, a consultant medical oncologist, explained that the liver is responsible for clearing chemotherapy drugs from the body and that if it is not working properly, the medicine builds up to toxic levels.
A high-risk procedure to drain the toxins using tubes and stents was performed successfully. Aldred then developed sepsis, a life-threatening condition Dr. Murphy described as a recognized complication of procedures involving the liver. He recovered within a week and was discharged home.
A rare subtype and a treatment the NHS does not cover
Genetic testing revealed that Aldred has a BRAF subtype of colon cancer, which Dr. Murphy described as particularly aggressive but one that responds especially well to a new combination of drugs. BRAF accounts for about one in 10 colon cancers and is the same subtype that affected Dame Deborah James, who died from the disease at age 40 in 2022.
A recent international study involving 637 patients found that giving the combination of encorafenib and cetuximab alongside chemotherapy doubled life expectancy from about 15 months to 30, with no greater risk of side effects than chemotherapy alone. The full three-drug combination is not routinely available through the National Health Service. Two of the drugs are available through the NHS, but only after chemotherapy has stopped working, at which point studies suggest the treatment is significantly less effective.
With private treatment estimated to cost the equivalent of $140,000 a year, Aldred and his husband Matt, 38, launched the fundraising campaign. Aldred said he had initially considered refinancing their house, continuing to work full time and asking his parents to withdraw part of their retirement savings to cover the cost.
A broader trend among younger adults
Aldred said he believes his story has resonated widely because colon cancer is increasingly striking people his age. Colon cancer diagnoses among adults under 50 have risen by about 50 percent since the 1990s, according to figures cited in the source. Actor James Van Der Beek, best known for the 1990s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, died at age 48 earlier this year, just over two years after his own diagnosis.
Dr. Murphy said the majority of patients she now treats are young, mostly under 50, and otherwise healthy, and that most cases are diagnosed at late stages either because doctors assume cancer is unlikely given the patient’s age or because the cancer is a particularly aggressive form.
Scientists have proposed explanations for the rise including pollution, foodborne infections and the consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Aldred, who was due to begin the privately funded treatment within days of speaking to the Daily Mail, said that being faced with the possibility of his life ending sooner than expected had made ordinary moments feel precious and even euphoric.
