On Saturday, with my amazing friends, family and boyfriend I will be taking part in Walk It London for Crohn’s & Colitis UK writes Hastings woman Beth Mitchell.

In July 2018 I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), an inflammatory bowel disease. After becoming more and more ill losing over a stone in weight, going to the loo more than ten times a day and throughout the night, becoming anaemic, dehydrated, having flu-like symptoms and having no energy to do anything, I was admitted to the Conquest.

I won’t go into detail on other symptoms because they’re a little too graphic! I spent a week in the Conquest with doctors and nurses poking and prodding quite literally everywhere and being pumped with steroids to try and bring my condition under control. I am now told I went in to hospital with severe proctitis – not mild or moderate – in the doctor’s words.

Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. As I came off the first set of steroids, symptoms started to return. I have now been on steroids four times in less than a year and have struggled with getting my UC under control.

Living with a chronic illness is hard work! There is no cure so the hope is to get it under control and live a ‘normal’ life with few symptoms and hopefully none.

Unfortunately for me, I haven’t got this just yet and after seeing a specialist just recently, will be trying a new medication soon called biologics, as steroids are not a long term solution.

All of the medications I’m on have their side effects and I’m not only struggling with this, I have struggled with the mental side of it. It’s not the most well known disease and it can be embarrassing to explain to people what you’re going though. Knowing that I have this for life is something I find hard and I’m sure lots of people who suffer with the same or similar know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’m hoping as many people as possible might feel they can donate something to this amazing cause and help us hopefully, one day, find a cure for this horrible disease and I can be free from checking where the toilet is EVERYWHERE I go!

You can donate to Beth’s cause by following this link

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/beth-mitchell8?fbclid=IwAR2EgXdtMSxUshKPDASxtg99OaLGTfN3otsxmUuD7rlWjFcAZAmeiwHf_1Q