Hi everyone, my name is Kat and I have been living with a chronic inflammatory bowel disease called Crohn's for a long time. I've had a difficult time getting a proper diagnosis and support, but I recently found an organisation called Crohn's colitis lifestyle that I believe can help me manage my symptoms and potentially reach remission.

I am currently trying to raise money to cover the cost of signing up for their private support service, which includes a full health background test and any necessary medication or supplements. This organization works with all sides of health from discovering and tackling the root cause of issues and infections through labs, being able to guide me through a protocol to alleviate the use of lifelong medication and future gastrointestinal surgeries, teaching me food philosophies and more.

My battle with this disease began long before I knew what it was, and it's been a rollercoaster of misdiagnosis, pain and weight management. Throughout childhood and my teenage years, I intuitively altered my eating habits due to periods of changes in my stomach and bowel issues. At 17 I moved out of my family home and while working encountered my first few major health deteriorations one being my bone conditions worsening to the point of having to leave my job in the hospitality sector and part-time modelling.

About a year on I got a stomach infection which I believe was the first trigger of my major Crohn’s flare-ups where I lost a rough total of 14kg in 6 months. Over this period I was misdiagnosed as anorexic and within 6more months of struggling on my own to regain all the weight I had lost being able to work less and finding myself very depressed now hitting an all-time low of just under 38kg, I was given the ultimatum of being a voluntary inpatient of being sectioned for at least 6months (to me at this point the idea of being an inpatient was part a nightmare but also perfect as I felt hopeless at this point.

Although originally had been told of a provisional 6-month stay, I had a 2-month inpatient stay where I went through refeeding (Refeeding is the process of reintroducing food after malnourishment or starvation . Refeeding syndrome is a serious and potentially fatal condition that can occur during refeeding. It's caused by sudden shifts in the electrolytes that help your body metabolize food.) in the 2 months I went from I gained 6+kg and as I engaged with all parts of the service through stomach flare-ups ate all meals, snack and drinks and was on a steady gain with that and other factors was released early.

Over the next 6+ years I was finding it hard to manage my health and going through waves of deterioration and restorations by myself, due to the misdiagnosis of anorexia I felt when I complained about my discomforts when eating and digesting food it was disregarded. This caused me to venture back to my own research and trial-and-error methods. After having several GP and A&E trips from 2020  to the end of 2022 for severe stomach pains, finally got an urgent referral to gastroenterology and after a test, uncovered parts of my large intestine being inflamed among other things which led to my current day diagnosis of Crohn’s.

I have been through a lot and I hope that this organisation can help me improve my health and daily life. Your support would be greatly appreciated! Sharing or even the smallest donation will help me take the first step towards turning my life around.

Thank you for reading and for your support!