A Scots lad has almost doubled his weight to just 11 stone after a cruel battle with Crohn’s disease.
Inspiring Kieran McLaughlin is celebrating the major recovery milestone after gaining five stone.
The 26-year-old, from Hamilton, was a healthy teenager before his immune system suddenly began to attack itself leaving him in ‘severe’ pain.
Crohn's disease is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed.
It left him terrified as he was suddenly plagued with hair loss, chronic cramps, weight loss, and a colostomy bag as his body was struck by what he first thought was a ‘bad bug’.
He dropped to just six stone at his lowest leaving him drained, exhausted, depressed, and feeling like he ‘missed out on a lot’.
But Kieran, who works as a software tester, was determined to get back to health with new medications and even managed to go up four waist sizes in lockdown.
Kieran told the Daily Record: “It felt good [to reach 11 stone], it was nice to look in a mirror and see a physical milestone of how I was recovering and how lucky I was that my body responded with the medications and ongoing treatments.
“Recently it’s a lot better, I’m on immunosuppressant drugs weekly which have kept my Crohn's in check and the colostomy bag has completely changed my life.
“I’ve put on a lot more weight with working from home and being able to eat meals at the right times, since the start of lockdown I’ve gone up four waist sizes.
“It made me worry seeing my body shape change and having clothes being too small even though looking back I realise how thin and unhealthy I looked at the time.
“But it was a sign my medication was working and things were better health wise and now I’m a lot happier with it as I’m now a healthy weight for my height and age.
“I feel a lot more confident now with it as it’s no hassle at all to change when I’m out and my girlfriend, family and friends have been really supportive."
Kieran was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease when he was 18 in 2013, turning his life upside down.
He first noticed something was wrong when began suffering extreme pains and discovered blood in the toilet.
Kieran then had to undergo several surgeries to drain abscess as a result of violent flare ups.
He was just six stone in 2014 and then managed to reach eight stone by 2018.
Kieran explained: “It’s weird, it almost came out of nowhere for me. I thought I had a bad bug but then it never went away.
"It was a shock as it’s caused by problems with your immune system so at 18 when I had never really had any bad sickness but then got diagnosed with a disease that was causing my immune system to attack my insides.
“I was so ill I was dropping weight, had severe cramps and going to the toilet constantly throughout the day with lots of blood.
“I ended up having to get a colostomy bag fitted to relieve the abscess. That was really scary at the time but now I can’t imagine my life without it, it’s brought a lot more comfort to my life.
"I always felt really fatigued which came with me feeling really depressed with it. I always had to consider if there would be toilets wherever I was going and hope I didn’t feel wiped out, I missed out on quite a lot because of this."
Kieran is now sharing his experience to help others open up after admitting he often felt embarrassed to reach out.
He is urging anyone worried about their health to contact their GP to 'avoid things potentially getting worse.'
Kieran added: “To anyone else that’s going through I’d say the same, take each day as it comes even and never feel guilty if you take a few days in bed to recover.
“Don’t feel embarrassed discussing it either because I was in the same boat early days where I’d feel so embarrassed talking about the symptoms but now I can talk about it without a second thought.
“Even telling my now girlfriend that I had a colostomy bag on our first date because I’d over thought how to bring it up so I just ended up blurting it out haha!
“Take it from someone who almost always puts off phoning about a new pain or new symptom, it’s best to phone the doctors early on and avoid things potentially getting worse.”
You can find out more about Crohn’s disease and how to manage it here.
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