On the 22nd of June 2013 my family (Tim Coleman, Derek Coleman and Jenny Coleman) my partner (Luke Taylor) and I will be doing a 6 mile charity walk around London to raise awareness for Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

The money raised will go towards valuable research into Crohn's and Colitis. 

You can find more information regarding our walk, here:

https://www.nacc.org.uk/content/general/CCwalk.asp#top

 

My Story:

I guess I should come clean!

I've kept it under wraps from alot of you- my close friends, family and work colleagues know, but for those of you that don't- I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in October of 2012.

Crohn's disease is an auto-immune disease- essentially your immune system starts attacking your digestive tract (Crohn's disease is typical in your small bowel). In my case, it's ulcerated 50cm (10%) of my small bowel- an area too large to operate on at present. Because it's quite a large area- as you can imagine, it can be very painful and causes alot of fatigue.

 I'm currently trialing a number of drugs (some in pill form, some that require a drip every 2-8 weeks) along with very regular visits to the hospital to try and get me into remission- I'm hopeful these new drugs will work, however three out of four Crohn's patients will require surgery at some point.

Crohn's disease is a life long condition- there is no cure. Not only does it attack your small bowel- it goes on to attack your joints and even eyesight .If I go ahead with surgery there's a chance it'll temporarily make my life more comfortable however, Crohn's will always reoccur and there's a chance it'll come back more aggressive than before.

I wanted to do this walk to show that an illness shouldn't hold you back from achieving your full potential. I'm still the same person I was before.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. The support I've had from my family, my partner, friends, work and people I've never even met before has made me realise that no matter which road my Crohn's takes me down I'll never be alone.