💜  Inflamatory Bowel Disease - includes, Crohn’s Disease / Ulcerative Colotis / Pan Colitis 

💜 Affects 1 in 210 people / 5 million people

💜 1 in 4 patients need surgery 

💜 There is no cure 

🟣 I was diagnosed in 2017. Spent most of 2018 in & out of hospital. Spent some time on disability benefits due to my illness restricting me. I began discussing the idea of having a partial Colectomy with my consultants & surgeons. Which meant having a stoma. 

💟 After many combinations of oral medications failed me, I was offered Biologic drugs. I finally went into remission in 2019 (2 years later) after many trial & error drugs. Immunosuppressants are what finally helped me. 🙏🏽

🟣 I was on infusions, months later I got antibodies (my body rejected it), then started new injections, got antibodies again only months later. Then there were no drugs left I hadn’t tried or my body didn’t like… so I wait, medication free… eating carefully & keeping fit, but knowing I’d get ill at some point and not sure what I’d do then.

💟 A year later (Aug 2021) and my disease shows as severe/moderate, BUT there is now a new medication for me to try. Jan 2022 I started infusions for the new biologic that is designed to target inflammation in the gut, rather than inflammation all through the body. So far, so good. 🤞🏽

💜 1 in 4 patients will need a stoma in their lifetime. Cutting edge research for medication that can keep patients like me in remission and prevent the need for life changing surgery like partial or full colectomies.

🟣 Research continues to help create new medications to help both autoimmune patients and IBD patients specifically. Without the amazing work the charity do alongside the amazing NHS, I don’t know where I’d be 💜

💟 When diagnosed the first thing I was handed was leaflets & booklets explaining my disease to me, designed & printed by C&C UK. 

Crohn’s & Colitis UK : 

☑️ Campaign to bring awareness to this disease. 

☑️ Work with healthcare professionals to improve diagnosis, treatment and management of the diseases.

☑️ Staff & volunteers give people essential information when they need it. 

☑️ Vital research grants drive pioneering research to discover better ways of managing the diseases and, one day, a cure.

More about the charity:

We’re the UK’s leading charity for Crohn’s and Colitis.

Right now, an estimated 500,000 people in the UK are living with a lifelong disease that many people have never heard of. And the real number could be almost double that.

Because of the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding these diseases, thousands of people are suffering in silence.

But they’re not alone.

We’re working to improve diagnosis and treatment, and to fund research into a cure; to raise awareness and to give people hope, comfort and confidence to live freer, fuller lives.