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As I've been building my confidence, learning all things stoma life & sharing my experiences along the way since 2011, I have always enjoyed helping others. I have built my Instagram following of just over 9,000 followers (how crazy is that?!) in 3 years to share my reality of living with a stoma and my day to day life.

Today is Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) & I always count my lucky stars that thanks to my stoma, it is a day I can now enjoy and not dread. In the stoma world, we can also speak of pancaking, which isn't so tempting or enjoyable! To read more about this, you can check out my blog post I wrote in 2020 here.

What we eat before and after can change dramatically however for some people that just isn’t the case and they are most definitely the lucky ones! Over the past six years of having my ileostomy my diet has had to change a few times due to either intolerances or learning that certain foods I could eat now give me blockages or are more prone to allowing my stoma bag to leak. There sadly isn’t a one diet fits all which I often think is a particular shame because it would certainly make my life a heck of a lot easier.  Some people have the added issues of being diabetic, celiac or have a lactose intolerance then there are those who are...

February 17th has been marked as National Random Acts of Kindness Day celebrated by individuals, groups and organisations nationwide, to encourage acts of kindness. The dedicated website highlights the #RAKTIVIST MOVEMENT asking people to share their own and shout out about them. Here are some of my favourites:

Hello Comfizz readers, As always, I hope this blog post finds you well & if it doesn't, I'm sending you healing hugs & I'm just a chat away over on my Instagram. It is nearly Valentine's Day again so I wanted to do another blog post on stoma life & relationships. If you want to read last year's Valentine's post, you can read it here. I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to you about my experience with wedding planning with a stoma & the things that may cross your mind such as choosing an outfit, food, emptying your bag & drinking alcohol.  A little intro on my other half & I In 2017, I met my...

It's that time again when my baby boy (not so much baby anymore) has his birthday and this year he turns 6! He has come so far, and exceeds all expectations with a big personality to match. With that light at the end of the covid tunnel looking brighter and brighter each day, many children have been having birthday parties where possible.

For some who have been living with a chronic illness that meant it impossible to continue in a chosen career, it’s simply heart breaking. In 2012 I graduated a Design Technology Teacher, and was excited to start sharing my passion and enthusiasm for teaching and building relationships with students, nurturing the next generation with creativity, and teaching practical skills they could use in the future. Teaching has always been a vocation, not just an occupation. I count myself lucky that I found it as many can go through life not knowing what they want to do. 

As I write this blog I am home from an unexpected hospital stay with my little boy. He got dehydrated quickly and required IV fluids. Being a patient with open access due to this needs it took one phone call and only a few hours before he had a cannula in and fluids given. Now I understand that it may take a lot longer for some, and we have ourselves waited many hours for such things, but it never fails to amazing me how they can take a poorly child and so quickly make it seem brighter and hopeful that they will be ok.

International day of persons with a disability - 3rd December 2021 This day was first introduced by the UN in 1992 to protect the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities and their human rights. This year's theme is 'Not All Disabilities Are Visible’ which teams with the work I have done in the last 2 years with Pelican and Respond Healthcare. Their Be The Change Campaign and Cardiff City Centre’s signage change on toilet facilities, meant not just a wheel chair logo but also people who appear to have nothing wrong being included.

Hello my lovely Comfizz readers! November 20th is Universal Children’s Day #UNChildrensDay.  Having been given a diagnosis of Crohn's disease at 7 years old, this is obviously something that had significant impact on my childhood. A question I get asked quite frequently is: "What were your first signs of Crohn's?" In this blog, I am going to answer this & give you a bit more insight into having Crohn's disease as a child (what I can remember of it any way, with a little help from my Mum!) Malnutrition As a toddler, I suffered with bouts of Malnutrition (where your body doesn't have the right nutrients) from being a very picker eater, weight loss & had loose stools & diarrhoea...