Writer wants to share facts of Crohn’s
WHEN Jen McGregor was growing up she worried she was the only one with Crohn’s Disease and a life with a colostomy bag.
But now the 24-year-old is writing her first novel, she hopes to make the facts of Crohn’s easier to access for young people.
The as-yet untitled book will follow 16-year-old Winter two years after she is diagnosed and worried about getting an colostomy bag in case it means she’ll never find love.
Jen, a Strathclyde University student, said that’s something she feared herself when she was told she had Crohn’s at age 13 and that she’d someday need a bag.
She said: “When I was younger, I thought there would be no hope.
“There’s a huge community of young people who have been told ‘you’re going to need a bag’ and most of us put if off longer than we should.
“The bag has made my life a lot better. Your life does go on.”
Jen, who was named West Dunbartonshire’s Citizen of the Year in 2016 for her Crohnie Clothing designs, added: “I was told I would get a bag at some point and my reac- tion was ‘I would rather die’.
“I always worried I would not get to date someone and I met my boyfriend Stuart less than three months before I got the bag. “I want other girls to know that.” Jen has set herself the target of September to finish her debut novel to send to potential publishers while she’s on the summer break from studying entrepreneurship and marketing.
She said: “The more I can raise awareness in an interesting way, people will be more inclined to remember symptoms and facts.”