Those of you who know me, will know that I am not a 'runner' but after everything my husband (Nick) and all other crohn's sufferers have to live with day in, day out I wanted to raise awareness and donate all money raised to the '#GetYourBellyOut campaign' that Nick is involved with.

Myself and Nick have been together for 18 years this year and married for 9 years. Everything was going well until 6 months before our wedding day. Nick became really ill and lost loads of weight, he was misdiagnosed a couple of times until he was admitted to hospital when he was then diagnosed with Crohns Disease, from that point on everything changed to a lifetime of hospitals admissions, medical appointments, medication, blood tests, scans.....the list is endless.

We had our dream wedding as planned and it was extra special given everything that had happened in the lead up to our big day. In 2008 our first baby was born (Niamh) which we were both really excited about, but throughout her first few years Nick was in and out of hospital with crohn's attacks.

In 2010 I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd baby (Isla) I was due in September. 4 weeks before my due date Nick was rushed to hospital in an abulance with severe pain and unable to move due to the abdominal pain he was suffering with. After several tests they put it down to another attack. We were kind of used to these 'attacks' now and we were just hoping he would be home in time for the birth of our 2nd baby.

A couple of days into his time at hospital i was due to go and visit Nick at normal visiting times but I received a call from Nick from the ward telling me that he is going down for surgery, to which i said, 'what?, when?' and Nick said, 'now' We were both gutted! We just couldnt believe it was happening. The uncertain thing about it all was that we did not know what was going to happen during and after surgery as it was emergancy surgery and whether he was going to be there for the birth.  Being heavily pregnant, having a toddler and a poorly husband was physically and emotionally draining.

Nick came out of theatre quite late and I went up to hospital to see him early hours of the morning (I think it was about 1am) seeing him in the hospital bed with wires and tubes attached to him and machines beeping was awful - we were supposed to be counting down the weeks to having our new baby. Nick was aware that I was in the room but didnt open his eyes and his first words to me were, 'Do i have a stoma?' to which I had to tell him that he did. Still unaware of what all this ment we just took each day as they came. Nick had 10cms of his large bowel removed and 30cms of his small bowel removed due to scar tissue and an abcess.

Due to Nick's health and everything that had happened it made sense to have a home birth because he was unable to drive after major surgery and we also had little Niamh to consider. Isla was born at home and Nick was there to witness it.

It took a while to adapt to the stoma and mucas fistula but like everything, we find a way!

Initially Nicks stoma was supposed to be temporary, however we are 5 years on and we feel Nick has a better quality of life with the stoma.          

On 3rd November 2015 Nick will be having his colon removed and keeping his stoma perminantly.  This means another major operation and 2-3 months of recovery.

To show my support I am doing something that does not come easy to me and I want to complete the 5k with my brave husband feeling happy and raising awareness.

I am aware that there are a lot of charities to support and everyone is doing their bit to raise money for charities close to their heart so please dont feel like you have to sponser me but if you would like to I would be extremely grateful for anything as little as £1 to just show your support.

Wish me luck guys - Im gonna need it!!