As part of December 2019’s Crohn’s & Colitis week, popular online portal, Glasgow Live, ran a few features on their site to raise awareness of those in Scotland affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
Following on from our recent share of their story on 14-year old Amelia from East Kilbride, we now look at 19-year old Reiss from Cumbernauld, who has been living with Crohn’s disease for 10 years now, after being diagnosed at the age of 9.
Reiss talks openly about his struggle to manage school and how he has spent much of his life in and out of hospital, going through numerous operations.
Reiss: “During high school I was focussing on trying not to fall behind. Mentally, when it came to thinking about the condition, there were times that I did think to myself, why am I the one that has to go through all of this? Everyone else is fine, they don’t have anything wrong. People looked at me at that point, and just thought, oh, he’s a bit tired. But for me it was kind of like being in a shell, there isn’t really anybody there. The teachers would say, if you need anything you can come to us, but there’s not a whole lot they can help with, in that sense.”
This is just a snippet of the full interview with Reiss, and again, we encourage you to read the full article on Glasgow Live here.
Again, many thanks to the team at Glasgow Live for this great feature and helping the Catherine McEwan Foundation, as we continue to try and improve the lives of those who are living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland.