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Lauren’s Story
When I was 16 years old I suffered one of the most embarrassing things a 16 year old could think of, a peri-anal abscess. Mortified, I told none of my friends what had happened during my summer holidays but little did I know that this was the beginning of the symptoms of my Crohn’s Disease and that I would suffer another abscess later in the year that required emergency surgery.
I ended up missing 2 whole terms of my HSC year due to my Crohn’s Disease and yet I still refused to tell people what was wrong with me apart from my closest of friends, teenagers don’t want to talk about bowels!
8 years and many operations later, it wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I really felt comfortable in owning up to having Crohn’s Disease, and what made me feel confident to talk was that on the odd occasions that I had explained to someone what Crohn’s Disease was, time and time again people had been understanding and always curious to know more. So now I tell people more!
Last year I set myself the goal of participating in the City to Surf as part of the Changing Lives Challenge Team, this was my way of bringing Crohn’s and Colitis to the attention of everyone I know and it worked, I successfully raised $1,105.00 for Crohn’s & Colitis Australia. My best friend Ashling was alongside me every step of the way and this year we’re doing it all again, and hopefully this year we’ll raise even more money! But the most important thing is that we get people talking about Crohn’s & Colitis.