After some pretty serious symptoms in summer 2023, I was rushed into hospital and diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. I spent two weeks in hospital and had conversations with surgeons about having my large intestine permanently removed. I was offered one last chance medication, a biological IV infusion, after a few days I started showing signs of improvement. I have a chronic disease but with this fairly new medication I am able to live a somewhat normal life the majority of the time. I attend hospital every 8 weeks for IV infusions that keep my condition under control and I feel like me again. So much so I am running the Manchester Marathon for awareness and fundraising.

I am fundraising for 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.