GILL HELPS OTHERS LIVE WITH STOMAS
When Gill Castle, 44, from Alnwick, became the first solo woman to swim the English Channel in the dark with a stoma she wowed the nation. Now the incredible mum, who needed the surgery after traumatic childbirth complications, has arranged an empowering women-only trip to climb Africa’s highest mountain.
‘Swimming the English Channel alone with a stoma was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one that kick-started a whole new purpose in my life. Now I plan to climb Kilimanjaro with likeminded women.
My swimming story reached a lady in America who has a non-profit charity supporting women in Kenya with fistula – something I had after childbirth.
In Kenya, if you have a fistula you are considered “unclean” and husbands leave their wives, take their children and they can’t work. Some end up with stomas. She contacted me and asked if I would chat with some of the women there.
Starting a charity
That Zoom conversation nearly three years ago changed my life. I discovered these African women – and children as young as eight – didn’t have stoma bags because they can’t afford them. They were using tin cans and crisp packets and were developing terrible infections.
In the UK we have a surplus of stoma bags – so I started sending these out. Something so simple allowed these women to go back to work and girls back to school. I knew I had to start my own charity.
In June 2022, I set up Chameleon Buddies and visited a hospital in
Kenya the following month.
I was bringing 20 women together in one room. Conversations flowed from, “Can you still have sex?” to a young girl who hadn’t showered for 10 years because she thought she shouldn’t get her stoma wet. She had pot-washed for a decade!
I feel like this is my calling in life. I was a police officer and through my injuries and mental health issues, I lost that job. I worried about what my new purpose would be but things happen for a reason.
That’s why I’m planning another challenge, this time with women who have also been through trauma or injury – after all, that’s what has pushed me.
It’s a nine-day trip in October 2025, taking up to 16 women up Kilimanjaro – I’d like to raise at least £40,000.
It’s not for the faint-hearted – but I’d love people to get involved who have never done this kind of thing before. It’s also a stigma-bashing trip. There’s something powerful about being with a group of people who understand an experience that so many people feel ashamed about.
‘I feel like this is my calling in life’
We have all been through trauma in some way or another. You don’t get a stoma without a reason.
I’m really excited to see other people achieve something they never thought they could do, too. I’m proof that you can do whatever you want with a stoma – you just have to be a little more inventive sometimes.’
IF YOU FANCY JOINING GILL ON HER NEXT INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, THEN CHECK OUT CHAMELEONBUDDIES.ORG.UK