A woman from Northern Ireland has spoken about her ulcerative colitis diagnosis as a way to urge others not to ignore the symptoms.
Megan McNeill from Lisburn was diagnosed with the condition as a teenager after noticing blood when she went to the toilet.
Living with this symptom for five months before taking action, Megan said she was "young and scared" and initially unsure how to bring the concern up to her mum.
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It comes as a national poll recently showed 40% of Northern Irish people said they never heard of conditions such as Chron's Disease or Colitis, with low awareness that diarrhoea, blood in poo, and stomach pain could be signs of the conditions if they carry on for more than a week.
In response, charity Crohn’s & Colitis UK is launching a national public awareness campaign aimed at young people called Cut The Crap: Get Checked For Crohn’s and Colitis.
As part of this it has launched an online symptom checker, developed with doctors, which takes just 30 seconds to find out if you should speak to your GP about your symptoms. It produces a list of your symptoms and can send you a letter for your GP to make talking them through easier.
Megan said the new symptom checker is a "game changer", and something she wished had been around when she was too afraid to speak about her symptoms.
Speaking to Belfast Live, the 22-year-old said her other symptoms included mouth ulcers, stomach cramps, and bad pains in her body.
"I had been having bad symptoms for a good five or six months and just didn't tell anybody because I didn't know what it was and I was young and scared," she explained.
"The blood was definitely my first symptom. From then, things just got progressively worse. I was going to the toilet 30 to 40 times a day, it was horrible. I was doing my A Levels and I couldn't finish my last one as I was so sick.
"Other symptoms I had were really bad mouth ulcers, to the point where I couldn't eat. This was from the July when I first started getting symptoms, then it was November when I first told my mum.
"I went for my first scope at the end of November and wasn't diagnosed until around seven months later. It was a long journey and I got progressively worse.
"I didn't have an appetite, wasn't eating, running to the toilet, I had cramps and really bad pains. It was getting to the point where I was fainting and collapsing in pain.
"I do think if I was wiser I would've told my mummy sooner and maybe it wouldn't have happened this way."
Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed. Small ulcers can develop on the colon's lining, and can bleed and produce pus.
Megan was diagnosed with the condition and given steroids and immunosuppressants, but had to have emergency surgery to remove her colon and fit a stoma bag within the year.
She said: "I was only 18 when this was happening and my confidence levels were low. But now, my life has completely changed.
"I can go on holidays with my friends, I'm able to go out. I didn't feel like a normal teenager as I wasn't able to go out or do much with my friends, I struggled to leave the house.
"I'm 22 now and have my own house and a good job, it just feels like all that is just a blur now. I remember always thinking I was never going to get through it, that it was never going to end, but thankfully I'm definitely out the other side of it now."
Consultant Nurse Isobel Mason, of Crohn’s & Colitis UK, says: “If you ignore the signs of Crohn’s and Colitis for too long, treatment becomes more difficult and you are more likely to need stronger medication, hospital admissions or surgery.
“The earlier we diagnose, the earlier we can treat and the better people do, so we’d urge everyone to see their GP as soon as symptoms appear.”
Crohn’s & Colitis UK CEO Sarah Sleet said: “There already were far too many people waiting over a year for a diagnosis before the pandemic. Since then, that figure will have soared.
“Delays can be devastating, affecting people’s ability to do their jobs, go to school or college, socialise or have relationships.
“It is urgent that we do more to help young people stay in control of their health, and that means providing them with the tools to get the right diagnosis from their GP as early as possible.
“Our symptom checker gives people the confidence to go to their GP with a summary of what they've been experiencing, to help them get the right diagnosis and get back on the road to recovery."
For more information visit www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk
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