NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A neighbor turned the tables on a Riverside Regional Medical Center nurse who had advised her to get a colonoscopy, and it turned out to be life-changing.

It started last August when Sabina Ferrell’s neighbor, a woman in her 50s, talked to Ferrell about gastrointestinal issues she had been experiencing.

“She disclosed to me some information about her GI issues,” Ferrell said. “And I was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of concerning. … I think you need to do a bit more looking into it, maybe a colonoscopy.’ So, she said, let me check with my PCP (primary care physician).”

Her neighbor’s test came back clear. Then the neighbor turned the tables on Ferrell, asking her when she was going to get screened. Ferrell felt she had nothing to lose.

“I had no GI issues, my bowels were very, very regular, I had no abdominal pain, I had pretty good health overall,” Ferrell said.

But doctors say colon cancer sometimes has no symptoms. So Ferrell was shocked when a colonoscopy revealed a high-risk polyp. A biopsy proved it was adenocarcinoma.

“It was kind of sort of, in denial a little bit,” Ferrell said. “You’re still kind of thinking, ‘there’s no way it can happen to me, I have no symptoms.'”

The age for colon cancer screening was recently moved up from 50 to 45 because doctors are seeing so many younger people diagnosed with colon cancer. The percentage of people under 50 diagnosed with colon cancer has doubled since 1995.

“It’s basically based on trends in obesity,” said Riverside Health gastroenterologist Dr. Jamila Wynter. “So we do have a higher obesity rate in our country. We also think it might be linked to diet … that’s high in processed foods, red meat. And we do think it’s related to tobacco use.”

Ferrell was scheduled for surgery, but before that, she became symptomatic, with bleeding and a heart rate dropping to the 30s. The surgery was moved up. Her cancer was given a T0 to T1 rating, which is on the low end. Now, Ferrell is cancer-free.

“If I would have waited for another four or five months, I may have been under chemo and radiation, and my life would have been totally different,” Ferrell said.

“We do thousands of these procedures a year, and there’s a very minimal risk in complication and it really can save a life,” Wynter said.

Symptoms include diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain and unexplained weight loss.

If you feel you might have these symptoms, contact your doctor. To learn more, visit https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14501-colorectal-colon-cancer.