Skip to content
Woman so ill with hidden disease she couldn’t even walk the dog
It’s a group of conditions that affects nearly half a million people in the UK. Yet it’s barely spoken about.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the umbrella term for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis; two conditions that affect large groups of people in the country. One of these people is Kelly Bracewell, a 35-year-old that lives with ulcerative colitis.
She started realising something was wrong in 2012, but noted she “didn’t have the right symptoms” for IBD. Kelly said that due to the fact she wasn’t losing weight or “going to the toilet all the time”, she was unaware at what the problem could be, but needed to find out as she was living in “absolute agony.”
READ MORE: Dad recalls moment air ambulance saved life of his two-year-old son
The UCLan researcher and consultant said she went to her GP who informed her that the issue must be gynaecological, as the pain was located across her stomach area. However, after around a year, Kelly was referred to a female doctor who sent her for a colonoscopy.
It was soon revealed that Kelly did in fact have ulcerative colitis, but she said she wasn’t given much information on the condition after her diagnosis.
At the time, Kelly was only 25-years-old and had a busy lifestyle, balancing full-time work, charity work and completing her PhD. She told LancsLive: “I was doing really well at work, I got an award from the Police and Crime Commissioner and I was travelling all over.
“Then I got really, really ill. I think, not really understanding that it’s an autoimmune disease and I had chronic fatigue and I was doing what all the other 25 year olds were doing – and more. I ended up being ill for about 18 months.
“I was on steroids constantly, which gives you water retention and I wasn’t eating properly because I was in that much pain, you know, you don’t want to be out somewhere at work and then suddenly, you’ve got this agony where you’re doubled over.
“I couldn’t walk the dog around the corner and I’ve been going to the gym since I was 18 and I’m back at the gym now, as I think it’s really important for me. But, I couldn’t do anything. It was basically like being sawn in half.” Kelly says that people often say the pain is akin to the scene in the world famous film, Alien.
Ulcerative colitis is a form of IBD, where abnormal reactions of the immune system cause inflammation and ulcers on the inner lining of the large intestine. Kelly, from South Ribble, says she was in hospital for around a week before she was allowed to come off the steroids.
However, that meant she was more prone to “things like cancer, bruises and sunburn.” In 2018, after being well for around nine months, Kelly was admitted to hospital with suspected melanoma after spotting a mole on her back. Fortunately, she was fine in the end and has been in remission ever since. Kelly reflects on the fact that people generally aren’t aware of the complications that come with living with IBD, saying that she had one colleague who was so ill, she even looked into assisted suicide.
As a result, while she’s been well enough for the last few years, Kelly has worked to raise awareness of IBD. Friday (May 19) is World IBD Day, which gives the charity, Crohn’s and Colitis UK a chance to raise vital awareness of the two conditions. According to them, more than 500,000 people are living with IBD in the UK alone, yet it’s rarely spoken about.
Last year, Kelly did a ‘super circuit’ fundraiser, which was to raise money but also to push herself, due to the very fact that there was a time she wasn’t able to walk her dog around the corner. This year, she will be climbing the Three Peaks from the start of June.
“Yes I’ve got an autoimmune disease and yes I’ve got chronic fatigue, but how much can I push myself?” Kelly said. “To show others that you will get better, or it can be done when you’re well enough.”
Kelly says it’s not just a condition that detrimentally affects patients physically, but also emotionally too, as she reflects on feeling self conscious with her condition. She said: “I was on steroids that gave me this massive moon face. I hated my photographs being taken, so on my 30th, I didn’t like my photograph.
“My graduations, my PhD. You know, I was just anxious, I was exhausted. I wasn’t eating and because I wasn’t absorbing nutrients, my hair was coming out and in your 20s and 30s, this is not how you want to be. I was in and out of hospital for tests, scans, X-Rays, injections, infusions – you name it, I’ve had it. Both of my arms are absolutely battered and covered in bruises.”
You can donate to Kelly’s Three Peaks fundraiser on her Just Giving page
READ NEXT
