Brendan Moynihan describes himself as very fit and healthy.
“I played competitive sports all my life, and typically, I run four mornings a week,” says the 40-year-old Irishman who works in marketing.
Doctors dismissed Brendan Moynihan as too young to have a “serious” health issue.Credit: Simon Schluter
So it was unusual when, in August 2022, Moynihan found himself unable to run more than one kilometre without needing to stop – he felt “zapped”. A visit to his GP in Melbourne proved unhelpful.
“I was dismissed as being just too young for anything serious,” he recalls. “He said I was probably just run down.”
Moynihan took the doctor’s word for it and put his tiredness down to poor sleep.
But two months later, he felt even more exhausted, and there was now blood in his stools. Moynihan returned to his GP and, this time, was told he …