Alice 
Alice's Story
Alice,15
Well when I was in year seven at school, we went on a school trip where there was tents, mud and general camping type stuff...including shared toilets. I was getting really bad stomach aches and really upset stomach and diarrhea.
My mum and dad didn't even know about my condition because I was obviously too embarrassed to tell anyone and was really suffering badly. and being away from home with school it was so much worse.
I got home and after a while I told my mum and we went to see the doctor. It was so embarrassing to talk about it but my doctor was really nice. I was referred to Southampton hospital and underwent a lot of different treatments including iron at first because I was severely underweight and anemic. I wasn't growing right and my hormone levels were way lower than any other girl of my ages.
I was put on Imodium first off to control the diarrhea because I was having to run to the bathroom sometimes, and I'm sure many others who suffer from UC or CD know the feeling! That was keeping it at bay but as soon as I came off it, I became ill again. Still underweight and suffering I had loads of blood tests and I was told I would have to have an endoscope and colonoscopy...(where they shove a camera up your bum and one down your throat...hopefully not the same one!!)
And after that it was confirmed I had Crohn's Disease and not Ulcerative Colitis. I was put on something like mezaline I can't really remember but what I can remember is that it made me sick! It made me puke and get really bad cramps so I came off of that obviously. But the worst was yet to come. I was put on predisolone steroids which started like a few weeks before the summer holidays and by the time September came I was the size of a house! And obviously people at school didn't have a clue what happened. But I bravely stood up in front of them all and told them what had happened to me and asked them to support the NACC for our school charity day. By telling everyone I felt like a bad weight was lifted lifted off my shoulders. And I felt so proud of myself for being really brave about it.
And on that charity day, we raised like £500 for them! Then last summer, I went into London to do the NACC millennium walk and to hand over the cheque. It was amazing!
Eventually I lost my steroid weight but I had to go on them again because I had a relapse so only recently have I started to grow properly my hormone levels are up to where they should be and I've lost all my steroid weight =] I am now on asacol and azathioprine which isn't too bad. I'm feeling a lot better I do still get the odd stomach cramps but I'm feeling a lot better these days.