In 2019 my life suddenly turned around when a suicide attempt landed me in ICU at the Royal Alex. It was a second chance at a life worth living, and I left the trauma unit a year later a changed woman: I had hope, purpose, life... but I also had a wheelchair and a list of new medical conditions. Almost two years later, I had surgery to give me a colostomy, and a year after that, a urostomy.

My first surgery literally scared the poop out of me. In 2010, I lost one of my best friends, Sarah, when she was only 24. Watching her countless surgeries - ostomies, revisions, reversals; and then having to say goodbye when there were so many adventures still ahead of us - this was my only experience of the ostomy world. I didn't understand life with an ostomy... only death.

So, now a self-proclaimed "double-bagger", I have set about living life. It has been an adventure, but a beautiful one. I've travelled in the mountains. I've tried swimming, kayaking, floor hockey, bowhead-ing, curling, climbing, wheelchair racing....and so much more! I've built a life and tried my hand at being a student, a business owner, a volunteer, a board member, a singer, a songwriter...and so much more! I am a friend, a daughter, a leader, a preacher, a candidate for a faith order, a student, an entrepreneur, a patient, a neighbour, an honorary auntie...and so much more!

I have learned that life with an ostomy - with TWO ostomies - is not a death sentence. I have learned not to fear or doubt those words "so much more" but to embrace that there is always more adventure, life, and hope ahead of me.