Meet Our New Ambassador!

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome the amazing Stefanie Boyle to the Catherine McEwan Foundation Family as our new ambassador.

Some of you may already be familiar with Stef from her appearance earlier in the year on our socials with her video showing a week in the life of living with a stoma, or perhaps via her Instagram page @lifewithastoma_

Stef is passionate about raising awareness of stomas and is looking forward to using her experience to support IBD patients and their families. Check out her page @lifewithastoma_  lover on Instagram and let’s welcome her to The Catherine McEwan Foundation Family #allinforcrohnsandcolitis

Barclays Diversity Equality & Inclusion Week Event

Catherine McEwan Foundation founder Derek was invited to be a panel member at the Barclays Diversity Equality & Inclusion Week panel event. As well as telling the story of the foundation Derek was able to share how the cost of living crisis has impacted on the charity and participate in a discussion on Workplace Wellbeing Charter.

A huge thank you to Barclays for the invite, we look forward to working with you in the future. #allinforcrohnsandcolitis

Meet Avril, Our IBD Mental Health Support Therapist!

World Mental Health Day seems like the perfect time to introduce you all to the amazing Avril, our IBD Mental Health Support Therapist.

Avril has over 22 years of mental health nursing experience, and has also studied CBT, mindfulness, transactional analysis, life coaching, hypnotherapy and NLP. Her invaluable skills and expertise allow her to put together tailored plans for our Crohn’s and Colitis patients to help them battle with the demands that their condition puts on their their mental health and face the challenges ahead. 

Avril is passionate about making a difference in the IBD community as she knows first hand of the nature of Crohn’s & Colitis through her son George who was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at the age of 13. We are so proud to have Avril onboard and to be able to offer this much needed service.

If you are an IBD patient and you feel like you would benefit from our IBD Mental Health Support Service you can find out more and apply at > https://bit.ly/MentalHealthSupportService

Catherine McEwan Foundation Launch IBD Mental Health Support Service.

Living with chronic illness not only impacts your physical health but more often than not also affects your mental health. The Catherine McEwan Foundation team know only too well the huge shortfall in mental health services for IBD patients.

Providing mental health support is something we are hugely passionate about so we are super proud to finally be able to launch our IBD Mental Health Support Service which will offer one to one counselling to IBD patients.

The application form and more information about the service can be found at > https://bit.ly/MentalHealthSupportService #allinforcrohnsandcolitis

Since the inception of the Catherine McEwan Foundation 20 years ago, the objective has always been to create positive, lasting  impact within the IBD community of Scotland, through funding research, education, and services that make the lives of those living with Crohn’s & Colitis better.

We are incredibly proud to announce that the Catherine McEwan Foundation is funding an IBD Specialist Pharmacist for 2 years, to support the IBD team at the Royal Hospital for Children & Young People in Edinburgh which currently looks after over 200 patients with IBD.  At present the service delivers medication at the point of need, the placement of an IBD Specialist Pharmacist will allow for improved forward planning & structure of treatment, and in time access to new therapies including those which are only available as part of clinical trials.

Prof Richard Russell, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Royal Hospital for Children & Young People said:  “𝘖𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘐𝘉𝘋 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦. 𝘈 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘉𝘋 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘐𝘉𝘋. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘔𝘤𝘌𝘸𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴.”

Very exciting! #allinforcrohnsandcolitis

Catherine McEwan Foundation Family Day 2022

 On Saturday 28th of June, we welcomed IBD families to M&D’s for our 2022 Family Day, our first one since 2019 which made it extra special.

The families took part in a programme of educational events throughout the day and had the opportunity to speak to our IBD experts. The day was rounded off with fun activities for the kids at the theme park which were a huge hit!

The educational aspect of our Family Days is hugely important, but perhaps more so is the sense of community and support networks they build.

As always our supporters and volunteers did a sterling job to help us make Saturday a day to remember, we would like to extend a huge Catherine McEwan Foundation thank you to the IBD team, Teapot Trust, SMS Connect, Stevo Grimea & judiloucreations

A special thank goes out to everyone who bravely shared their story. #allinforcrohnsandcolitis

The Foundation Donates Educational Toys and Books to Royal Hospital for Children, Gastroenterology Department.

Education around IBD is something that has always been incredibly important to the Catherine McEwan Foundation. An IBD diagnosis for anyone can be overwhelming and frightening, but for a child, it is even more difficult to understand the illness, the treatment, and the impact it has on their day to day lives. 

The Foundation recently donated a range of educational dolls, books and anatomical aprons to the Royal Hospital for Children, Gastroenterology department, which will be used by staff to help IBD kids and their families understand the illness.  #allinforcrohnsandcolitis