A NSW woman who has been diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer says she was denied a disability support pension by Centrelink despite doctors giving her just six months to two years to live.

Joanne Parkinson, a 37-year-old mother-of-one from Macquarie Hills in the state’s Hunter region, was given the devastating news about her terminal diagnosis at the end of January.

The cancer has spread from her colon to her liver where there are 11 tumours, which doctors have said are inoperable.

“They sent me home for palliative care. Basically they said they can’t do anything for me,” Ms Parkinson said.

Along with taking pain medication, doctors at the John Hunter Hospital recommended Ms Parkinson undergo chemotherapy to arrest the growth of the tumours and extend her life expectancy to up to two years.

“They sat me down and told me that if I did nothing, no chemo, it was nearly a 100 percent diagnosis of 6-12 months because it’s so advanced and there are so many tumours in my liver,” Ms Parkinson said.

Ms Parkinson and her son Leo, 10. (Supplied)

Ms Parkinson is now undergoing chemotherapy in the hopes that it will give her as long as possible with her family.

The young mum helps care for her 10-year-old son, Leo, who is hearing impaired. Up until the end of last year Ms Parkinson had been working full-time doing clerical contract work but said her position was terminated when she became ill.

As the bills and mortgage repayments started piling up, Ms Parkinson and her partner Domenic visited Centrelink to see what financial assistance they could get.

With her partner earning about $52,000 a year, they were told their income was too high for NewStart.

Their hopes then turned to the disability support pension.

“There is a clause in the disability support pension that says if your life expectancy is two years or less you can go on disability support pension,” Ms Parkinson said.

“My doctors have produced all of the paperwork with those words. Obviously, they can’t tell you exactly how long you will live. But they said statistically only 14 per cent of people in your situation live to two years.”

However, it was then that Ms Parkinson and her partner were given the crushing news that she didn’t qualify for the pension because of the very thing that was meant to prolong her life - the chemotherapy treatments.

“They told me that because I’m doing chemo they see that as I’m being treated and I could possibly live longer than that two-year period, so I don’t qualify,” she said.

“But if I was doing no chemo at all, which again the hospital said if I did nothing at all I was basically 100 per cent sure to only have 6-12 months of life, that they would put me on a disability support pension.”

Ms Parkinson said she felt like she was being asked to choose between extending her life and having financial security.

She said the staff member at Centrelink who delivered the news to her was extremely apologetic and also appeared to be distressed not to be able to help her.

“She wasn’t rude at all. I walked up to the desk and I had the conversation with her and she was sympathetic.

“She basically just said I know your situation, this is what it is. If you had come to my desk today with a leg chopped off or in a wheelchair we would have been able to give it to you.

“She was just stating the obvious. She was bound by the rules.”

Ms Parkinson, her partner Domenic and son Leo. (Supplied)

Ms Parkinson’s case comes a week after Nine’s A Current Affair reported on a 26-year-old woman with Hodgkins lymphoma whose application for a disability support pension was rejected on the basis the disease can be cured.

Anna Grubb told the program she was being forced to look for work while undergoing chemotherapy, and feared Centrelink would strip her of her benefits because she was too unwell to do so.

Ms Parkinson said she knew of many cancer patients in the same situation as herself and Ms Grubb.

Centrelink’s decision was a big blow for her family and had increased their financial stress substantially, Ms Parkinson said.

“We have a 10-year-old to look after. I am hooked up to chemo from Wednesday to Friday every fortnight and my partner has had to take a lot of leave without pay,” she said.

“We are paying off a mortgage of $492 a week, so that is basically half of his wage. When I was working it was okay, but now I’m sick it’s not possible.”

Since being contacted by nine.com.au, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services said it would be looking into Ms Parkinson’s case.

“We understand life events such as these are very difficult. While we can’t go into the details of Ms Parkinson’s case, we do have sympathy for her situation and the impact this diagnosis has undoubtedly had on her life,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ve contacted Ms Parkinson and will work closely with her to ensure she is fully supported during this time.”

‘THESE ARE PEOPLE’S LIVES’

As well as calling for changes to the rules around the disability support pension, Ms Parkinson said she wanted to raise awareness that bowel cancer was not just an old person’s disease.

Ms Parkinson first noticed symptoms of the disease, severe stomach cramps and blood in her stools, in August last year. But despite seeing multiple doctors and specialists was not given a colonoscopy to diagnose the problem until she went to the hospital emergency department in severe pain in January.

“The doctors didn’t think it was serious enough because of my age,” Ms Parkinson said.

A scan showing the tumours in Ms Parkinson's liver and colon. (Supplied)

At one point, Ms Parkinson said she went onto the Department of Health’s website to order a free home bowel cancer screening test kit.

However, after entering her birth date, she was informed she was too young to be eligible for one.

The test kit is currently only available to people aged over 50.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said while it acknowledged bowel cancer could also occur in young people, about 93 per cent of people diagnosed in Australia were older than 50.

But Ms Parkinson said it was not good enough, and the test kit should be available to everyone. Doctors also needed to be less dismissive of the symptoms of bowel cancer in young people, she said.

“Four months is a long time. If this was spotted when I first went to doctors in August then I might have been able to have surgery. I might have been in a better place. But we can’t turn back the clock. We can’t turn back time.”

“What I don’t want is for anyone else, other parents, or children or anyone to slip through the cracks like I did. These are people’s lives we are talking about.”

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION?

To be eligible for the disability support pension you need to meet ‘Manifest medical eligibility’ rules by:

· being permanently blind

· having a terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than two years

· having an intellectual disability with an IQ of less than 70

· having category 4 HIV/AIDS

· needing nursing home level care.

Or be fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised with an eligible condition.