CAROLINE BRAMWELL, 56, FROM ILFRACOMBE, DEVON
When I was pregnant with my second child, Natasha, in 2005, I started getting awful stomach cramps and noticed blood when I went to the loo. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disorder where your body attacks the lining of your colon.
After giving birth, things got worse and I lost two stone in a fortnight. I got so thin that my body stopped producing milk, and my mum said my legs looked like bits of thread hanging off my skirt.
I was put on steroids and other drugs to reduce the symptoms. But I was convinced I could fix it “naturally” by changing my diet, so I cut out dairy and gluten and tried things like wheatgrass shots. But it kept getting worse, to the point where I couldn’t sit on the floor to play with my children because it would make me need to go to the toilet. On top of that, the steroids made me bloated and I gained more weight back than I had lost.
After four years of this, I realised I couldn’t control my symptoms through diet. In March 2009 I had an ileostomy, a procedure where my colon and large intestine were surgically removed and my small intestine was diverted. Instead of food and waste going through all my intestines and rectum, it now ends in a stoma bag on my abdomen.
The bag gave me my life back. I could leave the house without worrying, and play with my children again without thinking about needing to be near a toilet.
After I had Back on the bike: Caroline took up triathlons after stoma surgery for ulcerative colitis healed from the surgery I was finally able to look after my health again. I wanted to lose the weight I had put on with the steroids, so I signed up for a London to Paris charity ride, cycling 270 miles in 24 hours. I hired a personal trainer and did some hypnotherapy which helped me shift my mindset around exercise, allowing me not to fear exhaustion or discomfort. Just a year after surgery, I completed my first cycle race. From there, I never looked back. Two years later, I rode a 300mile Newcastle to London 24-hour endurance event, then decided to go for triathlons too. I started running and swimming – which many people worry about with a stoma – and worked up from sprint triathlons to full Ironman distances.
I’m driven by two things: I want to show my children that anything is possible if they put their mind to it, and to show how much people with stomas can do. Interview by Helen Chandler-wilde
If you’ve been affected by this condition, help and support is available from the Ileostomy and Internal Pouch Association: iasupport.org