Most of my friends know that I have Crohn's disease, but they do not know the story of how I came to know this or why I fight so hard to raise funds for research with Crohn's and Colitis UK. This is the basic outlines of my story and how I came to get my diagnosis, and how life is with the disease (in my own personal experience).

My name is Shayne, I'm a 22 year old girl. I was diagnosed with terminal ileum Crohn's disease in January 2010 after seeing specialists in London at St. Thomas' and Guys for most of my life (since I was 4-5 years old). I have had many different trial and errors, but for 15 years I was told it was IBS and that Senokot would solve all my problems. Oh, how wrong they were! When I was 8 years old, I was taken into Guys for minor surgery to look inside my bowel as no other methods were getting any answers. They threw out the idea of IBS but didn't come up with a new one. This continued for many more years. Then in late 2009, I became very unwell. Every little thing I ate made me vomit, and in the end, so did any liquids. Then just the thought of eating or drinking made me vomit - but that got put down as anorexia. The abdominal pains were so excruciatingly painful that I would often be at the doctors begging for help, any kind of pain relief, just something to take it away. 

As it turns out that after numerous tests (that lasted until January 2010) that I actually had Crohn's disease and I had done all along! That's when the glorious steroids began. 2 years of attempting every drug they threw at me proved pointless as none of them made me any better - if anything, I just got worse. So in March 2013, I had my first major surgery - a resection. This was supposed to have put me in remission, or so they say. I spent a week before the surgery hooked up to TPN (basically every nutrient a body needs to prepare my body for the surgery, so I had a better chance of a good recovery and so my body could handle the procedure) and a week after, to recover enough to leave and manage myself at home. Well since the surgery, I have got gradually worse and been ignored by my old hospital. I have been left untreated since the surgery as I can't get through to anyone and just get told to take a little pain relief whenever I complain to them, or to ignore symptoms that are concerning me. I am in the process of transferring everything over to a new hospital and doctor in the hope that this will be better. I was also admitted a few weeks ago as a flare up hit me like a ton of bricks, but I discharged myself as there was a negligent nurse that I was possibly going to completely lose my plot at, and I have kept myself ticking over for so long now - why do I need them to tell me how to do it? I know I need the help of the specialists, and I need some decent medication. I need stronger pain relief, monitoring by the right medical teams, and I need so much support from the people who are supposed to keep us more than ticking over - again, those doctors. 

The day to day life of Crohn's is a painful, tiresome and lonely one, and no amount of words, diagrams or pictures could ever get someone who does not suffer to truly understand. I would not wish this disease on my worst enemy. But I would love to see more of those who do not have this, to be more supportive, to help us fight for this research, and to find us a cure for IBD (Ulcerative Colitis, as well as Crohn's). Without the help of Crohn's and Colitis UK and the all of the fellow bellies at #GetYourBellyOut, I don't think I would've had the strength to write this and to open up about how this has affected me. 

Thank you for supporting me and donating.