At the end of last year, the Crohn’s & Colitis awareness week ran from 1-7 December 2019  with the aim of raising awareness of those affected by these life-changing diseases.

In support of this, our friends over at Glasgow Live ran a few fantastic features on their website with the aim of drawing attention to those in Scotland suffering from these two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

One of these features was on 14-year old Amelia and her mum, Lucy, who live in East Kilbride, just outside Glasgow. A few years ago, Amelia was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which came as a complete shock to the whole family as her mum already had Crohn’s disease.

In this revealing interview with Glasgow Live, Amelia and Lucy talk openly about the destructive impact IBD has had on their lives and how they have coped over the years.

Amelia: “… I struggled with the mental health side of things. Like having PTSD from having the tube and the steroids I was taking a few years ago, caused me to have periods of depression. When I was 10 years old, I was sitting on my kitchen floor wanting to commit suicide, which to me still, is utterly crazy, because I was 10 and I felt like there was no point. It’s horrible. But I went to counselling for three years which really helped, and I was discharged, unfortunately there are long waiting lists for anyone who wants to access counselling services.”

It’s a powerful feature, and we encourage you to read the full article. 

At the Catherine McEwan Foundation, we will continue to try and improve the lives of children, young people and adults who are living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland. We thank the team over at Glasgow Live for their amazing support.