Josh Herting
- At 34, Josh Herting led a healthy lifestyle but noticed blood in his stool.
- He was proactive and got a colonoscopy, which came back positive for colon cancer.
- Now he’s sharing his story to help raise awareness of the signs to look out for.
In late 2013, Josh Herting, then 34, noticed some clotted blood in his stool.
But because he worked out five to six times a week and ate a healthy diet , he had no reason to think there was anything wrong, he told Business Insider.
“I was just overall really active and in really good shape,” Herting, who is based in Massachusetts, said.
Although Herting wasn’t in any pain, he knew what he was experiencing wasn’t normal. So he Googled his symptoms and shared his concerns with his girlfriend, who put him in touch with a friend who was a gastroenterologist.
The doctor recommended he consider getting a colonoscopy , where a tiny camera on the end of a tube is inserted into the bowels and is recommended for people experiencing rectal bleeding, blood in the stool, constipation, diarrhea that doesn’t go away, or unexplained weight loss. He had the procedure on Martin Luther King Day in 2014.