Hi, I’m Tiarna.
I was just 24 years old when I was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
At the time, none of my doctors expected it. Bladder cancer is usually thought of as an older person’s disease, so when I went to my GP with blood in my urine and UTI-like symptoms, a urinary tract infection seemed like the obvious explanation, particularly in a young woman.
When that continually didn’t resolve the symptoms I was experiencing, I consulted with a different GP. That decision changed my life.
She ordered me a urine test and sent me for an ultrasound. My urinalysis showed a red cell count of over 1000 without bacterial growth and my ultrasound revealed an irregular 3cm mass in my bladder. I was referred to an emergency appointment with a urologist who then booked me for an urgent cystoscopy and transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) to remove the unknown mass.
That unknown mass was low-grade, non-invasive bladder cancer. I remember being told that it was incredibly uncommon for someone my age. Once it was removed, the hope was that it would be a rare event that I’d never have to think about again. But because bladder cancer is known for recurrences, we would keep a close eye on it to be safe. Unfortunately, my bladder had other plans.
Since that first diagnosis in 2018, bladder cancer has become a constant part of my life.
In 2020, while my husband Dig and I were undergoing fertility investigations, I asked the sonographer to have a quick look at my bladder because I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. They found another tumour. Once again, I underwent surgery, followed by six weeks of intravesical Gemcitabine chemotherapy.
After twelve months of surveillance, we were finally able to continue our fertility journey, and in April 2022 we welcomed our beautiful daughter.
Just eight weeks after giving birth, I had another cystoscopy. For the first time since my diagnosis, there was no sign of cancer. It was the longest I’d gone without a recurrence, and I finally allowed myself to believe that maybe life could return to normal.
Then, in August 2023, during what was supposed to be a routine surveillance cystoscopy, my tenth, the cancer had returned. This time I underwent another surgery followed by Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)
immunotherapy. The treatment plan stretched over two years, with three weekly treatments every three months. I completed 30 of the planned 36 treatments before it became clear that my cancer was no longer responding.
In 2025, I experienced another recurrence and commenced HIVEC Mitomycin C treatment through the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Then, in 2026, bladder cancer returned again.
This was the shortest time between recurrences. A reminder that this disease was still dictating my life when I’d quietly convinced myself that I had a sneaky two years to live like a regular human before having to think about cancer again.
By this point, I had been diagnosed with bladder cancer five separate times.
On paper, I’m considered one of the lucky ones. My cancer is non-muscle invasive, meaning it was caught before it invaded the muscle of my bladder. Compared with more advanced bladder cancers, it has an excellent survival rate.
What those statistics don’t show is that non-muscle invasive bladder cancer has one of the highest recurrence rates of any cancer. Living with it means years of surveillance, repeated surgeries, ongoing treatments and never quite knowing when it will return.
For someone diagnosed at 24, those years of surveillance become decades. My urologist and I have joked many times that I’ll probably see him retire, but behind that joke is the reality that bladder cancer isn’t something I’ll simply “get over.” It’s something I’ll likely spend the rest of my life being monitored for.
When people hear “bladder cancer,” they often think about one operation and moving on with life. For many of us, that’s not the reality.
For me, bladder cancer has meant:
- Five bladder cancer diagnoses
- Five TURBT surgeries to remove tumours
- Six intravesical Gemcitabine chemotherapy treatments
- Thirty BCG immunotherapy treatments
- Six HIVEC Mitomycin C treatments
- Nineteen surgeries
- More than twenty cystoscopies
- Sixty-three urinary catheters
- A ureteric stent
- Loss of bladder control
- Years of uncertainty between every scan, cystoscopy and follow-up
appointment
The surgeries and treatments are only one part of my story.
Bladder cancer has shaped almost every major milestone of my adult life. It interrupted our journey to becoming parents. It has influenced career decisions, family planning and everyday life. I’ve learnt what it feels like to celebrate clear scans while knowing another recurrence could be just around the corner.
Living with recurrent bladder cancer means learning to live with uncertainty.
That’s why I share my story. We need to do better for people living with bladder
cancer.
I want people to know that bladder cancer doesn’t only affect older people. Young people can develop bladder cancer too, and when they do, they deserve to be taken seriously.
If my story helps one person recognise that blood in the urine is never “normal”, helps one clinician think of bladder cancer in a younger patient, or helps another person living with bladder cancer feel less alone, then sharing it is worth it. After eight years of living with recurrent bladder cancer, I’ve realised I can’t change my own diagnosis, but I can help change the experience for the people who come after me. That’s why I’m passionate about research, education and advocacy, ensuring that people affected by bladder cancer, especially younger patients, have a voice.
Because behind every statistic is a person, a family, and a life that looks very different after hearing the words, “You have bladder cancer.”