A father-of-four who joked that his back pain was just due to ‘getting old’ died just days after discovering it was due to rectal cancer.

In late July, Steve Burrows from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, started experiencing sudden sharp pains in his lower back and decided to practice yoga stretches to ease the discomfort.

But after the pain failed to subside a month later, becoming unbearable, the 38-year-old attended A&E.

Here, scans revealed he had rectal cancer, a type of bowel cancer that starts in the rectum. 

Heartbreakingly, further tests weeks later showed it was stage four, meaning it had spread to other parts of the body. 

After his condition rapidly deteriorated he was transferred to a hospice and died on September 27—just two months after first experiencing pains. 

Now his former partner Bethan Kester, is warning others not to ignore unusual symptoms and not to be afraid of visiting the doctor to get it checked out.

Recalling his heartbreaking ordeal, Ms Kester, 35, said: ‘It’s devastating for my whole family.

Steve Burrows, from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, was suddenly hit by twinges in his lower back in late July and began doing yoga stretches to alleviate the pain

Pictured: Jaiden Harvey, 16, Aleah Harvey, 15, Briannah Burrows, 7, Bethan Kester, 35 and Steve Burrows, 38 

‘It was literally a month ago he got told he got cancer to not being here, it’s taken the wind out of all of us.

‘He started getting some twinges in his lower back and he was trying to do yoga-style stretches to alleviate the pain.

‘Before we knew what it was [the pain] was pretty much all day every day.

‘There would be parts of the day it would just be a dull ache and [others] the pain would spike.

‘He’d be on his knees on the floor hugging the sofa stretching out because he thought it was sciatica.’

She added: ‘It escalated from there to the point he was bent over and couldn’t really move far.

‘He’d make jokes all the time about getting older. He’d say to my kids “it’s just old age” and I said, “you’re only 38”.

Mr Burrows had familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP), a hereditary condition sees non-cancerous polyps—abnormal growth of tissue—grow in the bowel. 

Pictured: Steve Burrows, 38, and Jaiden Harvey, 16

He was diagnosed with the condition as a child and at 13, underwent surgery to remove part of his rectum. 

Research has long shown that FAP significantly raises the risk of rectal cancer, given the polyps can become cancerous without treatment.  

Of his terminal diagnosis decades later, Ms Kester said: ‘It was such a massive shock for everyone.

‘It started off as something seemingly innocent as back pain so I’d never assume this would be the outcome. 

‘The back pain turned out to be tumours pressing down on his nerves.

‘He was devastated, and he phoned me, and he was crying his eyes out, he was really scared.

‘Once the initial diagnosis had sunk in, he was very much like “I’m going to fight this and we’re going to do this.”

‘Once they said it was on his liver, he did know it was serious and that it would take him, but we just didn’t have a clue how soon.

In his final days, he had lost a significant amount of weight after the illness ‘completely ravaged’ his body

‘It completely ravaged his body before anybody could take it in, and it took us all by surprise.’ 

Mr Burrows and Ms Kester had been together for nearly five years, and despite splitting up, she says they remained best friends. 

The pair co-parented their seven-year-old daughter Briannah and Bethan’s two elder children.

She has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to cover the funeral costs to give him ‘the proper send-off he deserves’.

‘Even though we didn’t really work out, we were still best friends and saw each other every day and he’s been a huge part of our family,’ she said.

Ms Kester added: ‘If there is anything different going on with your body just get it checked out.

‘Even if it’s nothing, rather go and get checked out to find out that it is nothing. If you’re not comfortable with it being nothing, push for a second opinion.

‘Whatever is different with your body, listen to it and see what it is.’

It also comes amid a disturbing rise of colorectal cancer in under 50s which has baffled doctors around the globe.  

It is estimated that over 42,000 Britons are diagnosed with bowel cancer and 17,400 die of the illness every year. 

The illness which also claimed the life of Dame Deborah James at the age of 40 has surged by 50 per cent in this age group over the past three decades.

Early warning signs of the illness include blood in your stool, changes in bowel habits, weight loss and fatigue, as well as a pain, lump or bowel obstruction.