My love for running has now taken me to the next step and what is probably the pinacle of the sport - the marathon! I will be running the Manchester Marathon on the 2nd April and although this page isn't just for sponsorship for the Marathon it would be great if you could spare a few quid to spur me on.

Below is what I have been through to get to this stage and I hope you agree that this really is a challenge for me:

My Crohn’s Story - This is a bit gross in places!

It was 1990 when I got the first symptoms, I went to the loo one day and when I looked in the bowl there was loads of blood – I can tell you if you’ve not experienced this it is a scary thing and being a fella and 19 years old it isn’t something that you tell your mates either!

I went to the doctors who had a quick look and I mean quick and said there was nothing to worry about, so I didn’t and eventually the bleeding stopped.

Then in 1992 I went to Paris to visit the New Disneyland that had just opened and on the bus transfer from the airport to the hotel I must have misunderstood what was said to us as I was convinced the operator said “the water in your hotels is safe to drink”, I need you to forgive me for my next action it was my 1st proper trip abroad – I drank some water from the tap in our room that 1st night. The next day I could pass it through the eye of a needle I was that ill. We managed to get some Imodium or the French equivalent and we did get to Disneyland Paris but I wasn’t well enough to enjoy it on either day and I spent the evenings in our hotel room. I think this was what triggered what was to follow.

When we got back I didn’t recover too well and I seemed to always have diarrhoea and belly ache and another trip to the doctors and he said there’s nothing to worry about, he didn’t know what it was but prescribed Buscopan for the Belly ache. I hated visiting the doctors and still do!

It did seem to calm down but I never returned to how I was pre-Paris in the toilet department but I got used to it and the pain would come and go.

I changed doctors several times over the years whilst I lived in Telford and in about 1994 one said that I had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and this went in my notes so every time I visited any doctor regarding my problems I am sure they would read ”IBS, give him some Buscopan and send him away!”

The bleeding started again on & off and again I was told “nothing to worry about probably rectal tears they’re normal” – seriously how can you tear something if you can’t do a solid poo? My problem back then was I was so accepting of everything a doctor told me because what did I know about medicine and the human body?

I moved to Oldham in 1999 and over the next few years I kept visiting the new doctors as my symptoms were getting worse and worse and the response was the same old “you’ve got IBS, try this pill or that pill” there were days where I was almost doubled up in pain and I would hide my pain from those around me and I would work through it – I would think there's no point in going to the doctor again as they would only say it’s IBS and I can get the pills over the counter!

And then November 2006 I got stuck on the M62 for a couple of hours and really needed a pee and held it for longer than I probably should have and a day later I was in a lot of pain, I mean a serious amount of pain and I thought I had a bladder infection and so I went to the doctors who took a urine sample thinking I was probably right, sent this off for analysis and gave me some antibiotics then 2 days after this the pain was incredible – the best way to describe it is you know that cramping feeling you get when you have a dose of diarrhoea? Well take that feeling and multiply it by 100 and then imagine that it doesn’t go even after you have been to the toilet and you have this pain for hours!

I phoned the doctors to try and get an appointment but it was their half day and so I begged and the only person they would let me see was the practice nurse – I owe that lady my life. She thought I might have appendicitis and sent me straight to a ward at The Royal Oldham Hospital. Where I received morphine, I could have kissed the nurse that gave me that injection the relief it gave from the pain was incredible.

I had x-rays and got fed Fibogel and received enema's (horrible things) for 2 days as they thought I had a blockage in my bowel and that it could be shifted; they were right about the blockage. Gross out alert – I had to collect my poo for the 3 days I was in so that it could be examined, this is not nice!

The pain started to ease so they made an appointment for me to have a Barium x-ray in the near future and discharged me.

Now to be able to see anything in your Bowel first of all they have to make sure it is empty and to do this the day before the procedure you have to take a preparation drink called Picolax and it tastes horrible and it also warms up when you mix it with water so is double horrible, you take one in the morning and one around 2pm and you are not allowed to eat anything and have to drink at least 2 litres of clear fluid. I can tell you that stuff does clear your bowels it is like sending an industrial cleaner through you.

A barium x-ray involves putting a pipe in your back passage and filling you with barium, this allows them to view your bowel, nothing should go in to that hole it is an awful procedure. Afterwards your poo is white for a couple of days.

The results of this x-ray showed that I had a stricture of my bowel but my fantastic consultant wasn’t sure how bad it was and suggested a Colonoscopy to have a better look.

Now the colonoscopy involves the same bowel prep as the x-ray before but this time a camera is inserted instead of the barium. I had this procedure done without sedation and I screamed the hospital down, they wanted to sedate me but I had driven myself there and would have to drive myself home afterwards. My consultant gave up trying to get past the stricture and couldn’t be sure what the problem was but had taken some biopsies and said he would see me in his next clinic.

At this point I was very, very scared, I thought I had Bowel Cancer, my Dad died from this in 1997 and that was a very long couple of weeks.

At the clinic appointment my consultant said he wanted to open me up and see what was happening, so me being the wimp I asked if there were any other options and he said that he could have a look with a CT scan so I took this option – another bowel prep and a CT scan later and he confirmed I needed an operation to remove the stricture in my bowel. By this time I had lost masses of weight and was below 10 stone.

So late April 2007, I was admitted to hospital and had to take another bowel prep the day before the operation to get me ready, my consulatnt also marked my belly where they would put my stoma.

On the morning of the op all I can remember is being in the room outside the Theatre and Jeremy Bloody Kyle being on the telly, I can’t stand that bloke!

I woke up with 6 tubes either going in to me or coming out of me and had also been fitted with an Ileostomy Bag that I would poo in for the next 6 to 9 months; I was ill, so very ill I could hardly move.

I saw my consultant the next morning and he told me as well as removing a couple of inches of my bowel that he had also had to remove my appendix as this too was massive and in danger of rupturing – it was at this point I realised how close I had come to dying from this because as we all know if your appendix ruptures it does tend to be curtains. Anyway I got a BOGOFF operation :-D It was at this time my consultant said I had Crohn’s Disease and not IBS as I had been told for the prevous upteen years (IBS is nothing like an IBD - Inflamatory Bowel Disease).

I remained in hospital for 2 weeks where I was slowly weaned back on to food, received physio care where I was taught how to walk up and down stairs without putting pressure on my wounds and I was also taught how to care for my Stoma. The stoma was part of my intestine that was pulled out through my abdomen and fed in to the bag – I am sure you shouldn’t see your own intestines.

The bag was okay and I soon got used to changing it, but I was very conscious of it and was always checking that no one could see it and that it wasn’t full and showing through my clothes.

The following Easter I had the Ileostomy reversed and I was then able to go to the toilet normally, my weight had gone from the 8½ stone I left hospital at up to 12 stone. The operation was a success I was now getting all the nutrients that I had been missing due to the food rocketing through me.

I then had about 2 years with no symptoms but then the diarrhoea would return every so often and I would be in pain for days, I then started to keep a food diary and discovered that I have a number of trigger foods: Coffee, Ginger Nut Biscuits (the best dunker going) and spicy food, so no curries :(

I have been on and off steroids and other drugs to try and control the flares but I have found that just avoiding my trigger foods is the way to go. Another trigger is stress, if I get stressed and I used to a lot then I will have a flare – now I try not to let things bother me and I have also found a great way to relieve this stress and that is running.

I now see my consultant every 6 months and about once every 18 months I have to have a Colonoscopy and that dreaded bowel prep just to make sure everything is still okay. I have some beautiful war wounds on my belly too, a six inch scar straight down from my belly button and a 2 inch scar to the right of this.

I know I bore people with my running but it has changed my life, before I took it up I would be flaring at least once a month and now provided I don’t eat a trigger food I can go for months pain free.

My passion for running is all down to the inspiration I got from seeing Tracy (my former wife) complete the BUPA Great Manchester Run in 2011 and I felt embarrassed that she could do this and I couldn’t. For months I dwelled on this and then I decided enough is enough and thought if I get fit maybe I would be able to control the flares and be able to get our life back. So I booked myself a place in the 2012 run and used that as my goal to get running and I haven’t looked back since.

I joined Crohn’s and Colitis UK at about the same time as I decided to run, I wasn’t aware of the charity and found it by chance during an internet search whilst looking for ways to help myself. As part of the joining pack we received a booklet called ‘Understanding Crohn’s and Colitis’ which Tracy read and she said the words “I didn’t realise what you were suffering” those 7 words meant so much to me, finally Tracy was in my world, I hadn’t been able to explain everything I was going through and I hid a hell of a lot. For that booklet I am eternally grateful and this is why I am so passionate about supporting this underfunded and little known charity. Although Tracy and I are no longer together I still credit her as the inspiration for me taking up this sport that I love so much; my disease was a contributing factor to our break up but it was not entirely to blame and there were faults on both sides leading to our separation.

I do not seek your sympathy when you read this story because my condition is very, very mild in comparison to what other sufferers have to deal with. I am very lucky others can become house bound as they are in a constant flare and can’t leave the loo, also the fatigue and pain they suffer is immense. For a lot of sufferers an operation gives them relief for a period but then they suffer another flare and another part of their Gastro Intestinal Track is damaged and they have to have another operation. An operation is not a cure, there is no cure and because of this there is a high chance that I too may have to have another operation in the future.

Crohn’s and Colitis UK help to fund research in to finding a cure as well as offering support to sufferers throughout the UK. These conditions can present at any age and many, many children also suffer and some of the stories I have heard about children and their schooling is frightening and it is these stories that also inspire me to help.

Can I just finish by saying a massive thank you to my 2 children who have had to hang around outside toilets whilst they wait for me, they have also taken it  in good grace if a trip is cancelled or cut short because of me. I am now much better than I used to be but it does still occasionally happen.

Thank you for reading my story I hope it encourages you support me in my effort to raise as much money and awareness as possible for Crohn’s and Colitis UK by running 100 miles every month for as long as possible.

If you would like to follow my challenge you can at: https://www.facebook.com/tonamonth

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.