"My tummy hurts!"

How many times does a parent hear this. But we started to think that maybe we had heard it once too often. Our son Matthew had been suffering from tummy aches for a few months, so we decided to take him to the doctors. After various diagnosis and treatments (without much success) we were sent to see a specialist to just check there wasn't something that was being missed.

To cut a long story short he was sent for a blood test just to rule out a "few things". Within days we found ourselves with an appointment at Great Ormond Street hospital for Matthew to have an endoscopy. Then we were told he definitely has Coeliac disease.

So what does that mean? Well basically he cannot have anything that contains gluten, which you may think is not too bad. However you would not believe the number of foods/drinks that have it in. Imagine not being able to have ordinary bread, some crisps, some sweets and chocolate bars, most of the MacDonalds menu, and you will start to get an idea of the impact this will have on him.

My "pain" will last for about 2 hours (all being well!) but he has this for life. Whilst not life threatening, I hope you can appreciate the impact it will have on him. I can't help thinking about the fact that he won't be able to just go for a beer and a curry with his mates in the future!

Please give what you can, and if you want to find out more about the disease go to www.coeliac.org.uk