Imagine being told in your late 20s you have a tumour in your bowel, you have months of chemotherapy ahead of you and now have to live with a bag hanging from a hole in your stomach.

Key points: Ms Matkovic was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October last year

Ms Matkovic was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October last year She is sharing he cancer experience to encourage people to get tested

She is sharing he cancer experience to encourage people to get tested Only a portion of those who get sent bowel test kits use them

That was the reality for Adelaide's Dahlia Matkovic, who is now using her cancer experience to encourage others to get tested, something she said she hoped would help save lives.

Ms Matkovic, 28, recently finished her 12th and final round of chemotherapy following her bowel cancer diagnosis in October last year.

While she now has had to live with an ileostomy bag, she has a simple message for others: "early detection can save your life".

"People receive these [bowel cancer] test kits in the mail and only 28 per cent of Australians are returning them and the rest are ending up in landfill," she said.

"It's just horrifying to think that there's millions of lives that could be saved if people just take this test."

Dahlia embraced her chemotherapy treatment with a smile. ( Supplied: Dahlia Matkovic )

'I noticed my poo was quite red'

Ms Matkovic's cancer story began much like many others, when she noticed something was wrong.

"It came to the end of September and I just noticed my poo was quite red … the following week I was only passing blood," she said.

After speaking with a close friend, who is also a nurse, she was told not to worry but that she should see a doctor that week.

"I was actually a bit too nervous and it was freaking me out, so I went to the doctor that day," she said.

After a rectal exam and blood tests in early October, a second doctor suggested a colonoscopy.

"I definitely didn't understand what [the doctor] said, I didn't interpret what he said as cancer," she said.

"I went to the surgeon with my husband who just laid it all out for me.

"He was like 'cancer, have to have surgery, IVF, chemotherapy', he really went into everything with me."

She made the quick decision to have her eggs frozen before starting chemotherapy treatment.

Bowel was almost 'completely blocked up'

Ms Matkovic had a tumour removed from her bowel on October 13 last year.

Although her surgery went well, she had months of chemotherapy ahead of her, and was told just how serious her diagnosis could have been for someone so young.

"If I had waited another week or two [my bowel] would have completely blocked up and closed over, so it was quite a large tumour," she said.

"It was about 20-25 centimetres, it had been there for years which is really strange to think about.

"My organs were clear but it was 70 per cent likely — because I'm young — that it will have spread to my lymph nodes, it's more aggressive in youth.

"[The doctor] also told me it was 95 per cent chance that I wouldn't need an ileostomy bag, and I woke up with one."

Dahlia has been open with others about living with an ileostomy bag. ( Supplied: Dahlia Matkovic )

Living with an ileostomy bag

Ms Matkovic said while she was a pretty positive person, the magnitude of her situation began to sink in when she had to learn how to manage the ileostomy bag.

She said a surgeon cut a hole in her stomach about the size of a 20-cent coin, pulled her small intestine through the hole, stitched it to her stomach and cut a hole in the intestine to create an opening, called a stoma.

The procedure allows her to pass waste which is collected in the bag on the outside of her stomach.

"You can have a stoma via ileostomy which is via your small bowel, or a colostomy which is via your large bowel," she said.

"It was so brutal … I felt super awkward, uncomfortable and embarrassed about the smell for about six weeks."

Managing the bag was a steep learning curve for Ms Matkovic, who said she could not sleep through the night because it needed to be emptied halfway through.

Although she will not need the bag permanently, she said talking about it had helped her embrace the experience.

"It ended up being that the more I talked about it the more comfortable I felt," she said.

'Chemo themeo' and accepting change

To help create a more positive cancer experience, Ms Matkovic created "chemo themeo" to get her through, dressing up as a different character during each round of chemo.

Her costumes included Cleopatra, Evel Knievel and Marilyn Monroe, among many more.

Dahlia dressed up in costumes during treatment, including an Easter egg and Cleopatra. ( Supplied: Dahlia Matkovic )

"It gave me something to look forward to and it gave me a reason to go to chemo, I actually got excited about it," she said.

"If you can bring a bit of spark or joy to something that is so negative, it's great."

She has recently been named the youth ambassador for bowel cancer charity the Jodi Lee Foundation, and also has a regular spot on podcast 25StayAlive where she promotes health and talks about her experience.

Ms Matkovic said she wanted to share her experience with others to encourage people to get tested.

"Now being on the other side, I gained so much from the last nine months," she said.

"Obviously I wouldn't wish cancer on anybody, but it definitely brought a lot of great things into my life that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Dahlia Matkovic with a close friend Ekaterini Kouzionis. ( Supplied: Dahlia Matkovic )

"Hopefully through what I'm doing, I just want to promote acceptance and change as such a crucial part of life."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said of the 4.1 million people "invited" to do the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program test between January 2016 and December 2017, 41 per cent participated.

Statistics show Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world with around 17,000 people diagnosed each year.

Around 100 Australians die each week from bowel cancer, making it the second most common cause of cancer-related death after lung cancer.

But if found early, nine out of 10 cases can be successfully treated.

Beyond early detection

If you develop any symptoms of bowel cancer — which include changes in bowel habits, blood in the stool or abdominal discomfort — or discover a family history of the disease, you should speak with your GP about the type of testing that is most suitable for you.

There are a number of ways to help reduce the risk of developing bowel cancer, which include having a healthy diet, quitting smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation and taking part in regular exercise.