Guest Writer - Caleigh

I was 13 years old when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Although I was still young enough to be treated at the children’s hospital, the Gastroenterologists at the main hospital has

the best knowledge about Crohn’s, so I was admitted to a ward where I was at least 40 years younger than everyone else. As my family wondered aloud how it was possible that I could have an ‘old person’s disease’, the nurse put me in a private room so that I could have my friends come to visit without upsetting the older patients. It felt like everyone had an auntie, or a second-cousin’s hairdresser’s friend, who also had Crohn’s Disease, but never anyone my age. Of course, it’s actually quite common to be diagnosed with IBD during adolescence and I’ve since met plenty of people my own age with the same condition through social media, it just never occurred to my family and friends to consider that other teenagers might also be in the same boat as me.

At the risk of sounding ancient, when I was 13 the internet was pretty limited (it was dial-up and mostly AOL and chatrooms) so it was tough to find online support for Crohn’s. I was a member of Colitis and Crohn’s UK and all the information they offered was massively useful and it formed the basis of my knowledge about IBD. My parents bought me a book, but reading it terrified me - it was full of worst-case scenarios and horror stories -and I chose the ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach to living with Crohn's for a long time.  In fact, until I had my first major flare-up, during my second year at university, I was completely unaware of the symptoms that eventually led to three hospital stays in as many months.

I’ll admit to being a bit (a lot) jealous of young people with IBD today. Not only do you have access to Facebook and Twitter, where you can meet thousands of fellow Crohnnies and UC-ers your age, but you also have Me and IBD! Even with all the brilliant support that Colitis and Crohn’s UK provide, most people are still oblivious to the fact that young people are affected by IBD, to them it’s still an ‘old person’s disease’.

As well as that wonderful support that Me and IBD offers, they are working to highlight the issues that young people with IBD live with. We (humour me, I’m counting myself as a young person now) need to spread the word that not only do young people have IBD, but there are issues that affect us at school, university and the workplace. We have to decide who to tell about our Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, remembering how judgmental our peers can be at times, and how hilarious some of them find anything toilet-related. When we are dating, we have to find boyfriends and girlfriends who are not only understanding, but supportive in times of ill-health, with doctors, hospital visits and those urgent searches for a loo during romantic evenings out! This, and more, is why it’s so important to put the spotlight on all the issues faced by young people with IBD in the press. 


The biggest battle we face is the one against ignorance and the more people who know about Colitis and Crohn’s, the better. Me and IBD can show the rest of the world how we face our conditions head-on, with bravery and a little bit of good humour, and that can only be a good thing.

Caleigh has her own blog Gluten Free[k]