Chorley mum given 24 hours to live after hidden illness took over

A Chorley mum was given just 24 hours to life after she was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain – but a colostomy bag saved her life.

At the time, Victoria Danson was working around 60 hours a week for her two jobs, including in her role as a hairdresser. She was also enjoying the weekends with her friends – just like most people in their 20s.

When the 33-year-old started to feel unwell, she put her feelings down to her busy lifestyle, saying she thought she was “overdoing it.” After visiting her GP, she was informed she had IBS – but Victoria knew it was something a lot more.

READ MORE: Woman so ill with hidden disease she couldn’t even walk the dog

After 12 months of trips to the doctor, the mum-of-one was eventually given a colonoscopy and a long awaited answer – she has Crohn’s disease. A type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed.

“At that point, I felt like because it we were talking about bowels and poo, at a young age, it’s not something you speak to people about, so I felt like I was on my own with it really,” Victoria told LancsLive. “I was really struggling.

“I had lots of different medications and with that comes unwanted side effects, so I just tried to live my life with it and not really knowing anybody else who was living with it.” Five years after her diagnosis, at 24-years-old, Victoria underwent emergency life saving surgery at Royal Preston Hospital.

Beforehand, she had been trying various medications with different side effects, but she knew the pain she was feeling was something else. In the end, it turned out that she had a small abscess in her bowel that had gone undiagnosed and as a result, Victoria had to have 18 inches of her small bowel removed.

After being in intensive care for a few days, Victoria eventually came round, she said: “The surgeon came around and took my hand and he went, ‘I don’t know how you were managing to live. It’s an absolute mess in there’. He said I had an abscess, but I also had abdominal sepsis, but they didn’t know this before they cut me up. He was like, honestly, another 24 hours and you would not have made it, we made the best decision.”

Not only did she have to undergo this operation, but Victoria woke up with a stoma and a colostomy bag. She added: “My life massively changed. At first, it was more the mental aspect of accepting the bag, but actually, the quality of life that it has given me since has really helped me accept that bag. Before, I was on the toilet like 15 or 20 times a day, the fatigue, the anxiety of always needing the toilet and when I had the surgery, I actually thought about how many people must be in my position, where they feel like they can’t speak to anybody about it, they don’t know anybody. It’s really isolating and it really affects your mental health.”

Victoria set her sights on starting up a local support group and began this journey by contacting a national charity, to ask if they could fund her dream, but they informed her they couldn’t. As Victoria was still recovering from her major surgery, she used this setback as a “driving force” to get back to work and fund it herself, knowing there was a major need for it. In April 2017, Victoria started her journey in raising awareness of IBD and Crohn’s, using her spare time, alongside hairdressing and parenting her young son, Louis, to support others in similar situations to herself.

People attend Victoria’s group sessions and inform her that they’ve grown in confidence as a result and can now live a better life. Victoria is also in contact with the nurses at Preston Hospital, who inform her of new patients and she is able to speak to them and answer any questions they may have on their condition.

Victoria said: “I think because it’s an invisible illness, people find it hard to understand just how it can make you feel on the inside. Obviously it’s not as bad as it was before, but there’s things I’ve had to do. I’ve had to change my whole diet to be able to function really, if I eat something I know I shouldn’t it’s just not even worth it. I was in hospital only a couple of weeks ago, it can just get you like that. And then I’m back out and I’m back into the real world and I’m busy and then, suddenly I need a hospital admission again.”

Victoria continues to inspire others with the condition, after a campaign she fronted called IBD Beauty and the Bag. Beforehand, she had never shared a photo of herself with her colostomy bag before, but decided to have a photo of herself on a billboard in Manchester with it, highlighting the fact people shouldn’t be ashamed of having one. Her work still continues to this today, with yesterday (Friday, May 19) as World IBD Day, which gives the charity, Crohn’s and Colitis UK a chance to raise vital awareness of the two conditions.

As well as raising awareness on the national days, Victoria works hard all year round to educate others on the conditions. On the last Wednesday of every month, she hosts a Crohn’s and Colitis Support group at the Annex in Euxton Community Centre, on School Lane in Chorley, from 7.15pm until 8.30pm. If you’d like to find out more, you can also visit their Facebook page.

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