The Only Way is to keep on going
TOWIE’S Chloe Meadows is limbering up for her first London Marathon after revealing the embarrassment of an incurable medical condition.
When she was 16, Chloe started to notice blood when she went to the toilet.
She said: “I was absolutely terrified and thought that I must be dying, that I had cancer.”
In fact, Chloe was so worried at what doctors might say that she ignored the problem.
She added: “It would happen for a few months, go away and come back again.
“It got to the point where I did tell my mum. She took me to the hospital and they wanted to do tests, but I never turned up – I was so scared to find out what I had.
“Then for a few years it largely went away, so I thought I must be fine.”
But, aged 26, her condition returned with a vengeance. She noticed blood in her stools and was suffering with tummy and bowel pain.
Chloe, now 32, says: “I lost loads of weight and I looked grey. My mum pestered me to go to the doctors.”
Eventually Chloe went for a blood test which showed that she was dangerously anaemic.
Iron
She recalls: “They told me to go to A&E where I ended up having iron and blood transfusions as I had lost so much blood.”
Months later, after tests including a colonoscopy and undergoing special diets, medics diagnosed Chloe with ulcerative colitis, a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed.
A type of inflammatory bowel disease, there’s no cure.
Chloe says: “I remember sitting in the doctor’s room and they told me I’d have it forever.
“It tormented me.
“I couldn’t get over the fact that I was going to be sick on and off for the rest of my life.”
She was put on medication and now takes up to 12 tablets daily to help keep her flare-ups at bay, but they can still be agonising when they occur and are often brought on by stress.
“I’m in so much pain from my tummy and bowels,” the star explains. “Some days I don’t have any energy because my body’s not holding anything in so I literally lie in bed all day.
“When I’m in a flare-up I have to avoid anything spicy, alcohol, gluten, dairy – and I can’t sleep because I can’t get comfortable. Sometimes flare-ups last a week but last year I had one for seven months.
“The stress of it can be a vicious cycle. It emotionally drains you and it’s hard to stay mentally strong.
“But it’s just one of those things I’ve got to live with and accept.”
Awareness
Despite her condition Chloe, who lives with partner George Wales, has always loved keeping fit. Now she’s training to run the TCS London Marathon for the charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK to raise awareness of her condition and funds. She adds: “I do two or three short runs a week which go anywhere from five to 12km and then I do one long run a week, but I haven’t done 26.2 miles yet! It’s been on my bucket list to do a marathon and I’m hoping to do it in four hours.”
The star is also hoping her efforts at the event on April 21 will encourage people who might be suffering with undiagnosed colitis to get checked out.
She said: “If it’s talked about more, then people won’t be so embarrassed about getting the help they need.”
● Chloe is running the London Marathon for Crohn’s and Colitis UK (crohnsandcolitis.org.uk). See tcslondonmarathon. com for more information on the event.