Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I've lived with Crohn's disease for 10 years now. Crohn's is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that affects around 4 million people worldwide and this number is rising year after year.

The type of things that myself and other Crohn's patients alike regularly have to deal with are abdominal pain, fatigue, diarrheoa, bloody stools, nausea, fever, vomiting, night sweats and weight loss. But these are just the day to day symptoms of Crohns, there are a whole host of other concerns such as:

70-80% of patients with Crohn's disease will require surgery at some point in their life.

Around 60% of those who have surgery will experience a flare up of their disease within 10 years after surgery.

1 in 20 with Crohn's will develop bowel cancer after 10 years of being diagnosed.

Depression has been reported in studies to be prevalent from around 20% up to roughly 70% of patients.

It is most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 30, making it a young person's illness. This can but a lot of stress on families and particularly parents.

The disease runs in families, with the likelihood of passing the disease onto your child at around 10%, rising to roughly 40% if both partners have the illness.

BUT, a cure is on the horizon. Professor John Hermon-Taylor at King's College London has been researching the cause of Crohn's disease for over 30 years and strongly believes there is a link between a bacteria known as 'Microbacterium Avium subspecies Paratuberculosis' (MAP). Trials thus far of a vaccine that eradicates this nasty bacteria have been successful (in mice and cattle), but the last stage of trials in humans needs funding, along with a new, rapid clinical test for the bacteria (as of yet there is no readily available test for MAP). The vaccine is currently sitting in a freezer awaiting funding for manufacture and clinical testing.

While I am thankfully not an aggressive case of Crohn's I have recently relapsed after roughly 5 years of being relatively symptom free (although not 'normal' by any means). I now require Infliximab infusions (an immune suppressant drug that reduces inflammation) and will almost certainly need surgery in the not too distant future to remove scar tissue and swelling in my intestines that has accumulated over the years.


I would love to not have to live with the physical and psychological burden of this illness, but really I want a cure for those who are far worse off than I am, those who are frequently in excruciating pain and have undergone multiple surgeries and the kids out there who shouldn't have to live with a chronic illness.


Visit the pages of the rest of the fundraising team here:

https://www.justgiving.com/teams/crohnsmapvaccineheroes

More information about the MAP vaccine can be found here:

http://crohnsmapvaccine.com/

Thank you! :)