A woman who wears a colostomy bag due to a chronic bowel condition claims she was humiliated by a stranger while she was swimming.
Jade Hughes, 23, from Tiverton, Devon, was told by another swimmer that her bag – which she has to wear – was scaring the children and ‘wasn’t appropriate’.
She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis – a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed – when she was just 17.
But after years of waking up in the middle of the night in agonising pain – she made the decision to have part of her bowel removed.
This was replaced with a pouch, known as an ileostomy bag – which she hoped would give her a new lease of life to exercise again.
Jade Hughes, 23, from Devon, had a ileostomy bag fitted this year after battling ulcerative colitis. She was hurt when a woman said her bag wasn’t appropriate to swim in and scared the children at the pool
Mrs Hughes told the Mirror: ‘The operation has completely changed my life – I used to carry around a change of clothes, a bucket and wet wipes everywhere I went.
‘But the bag has given me my life back and one of the first things I wanted to do was to get a membership at my local leisure centre so I could start putting some weight on as I’d dropped to five and a half stone.’
The sales assistant was beginning to see the benefits of being able to be active again, but was left stunned when another woman told her she shouldn’t be in the water.
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Mrs Hughes told the newspaper: ‘I was in the pool and this woman, who must’ve been in her 50s, came over to me and said “do you think that’s appropriate for the pool?”, pointing towards my bag.
‘I think I was just stunned so I didn’t reply and then she said, “well you know that shouldn’t be on show in pool? It’s not very nice for young children to see”.
‘She then went off to get the lifeguard, who came over and told me, “I’m sorry I have to say something because we’ve had a complaint”.’
But she said the lifeguard was really supportive and told her not to take any notice of the comments.
Mrs Hughes woke up in the middle of the night in agonising pain for six years before she made the decision to have part of her bowel removed (pictured with husband Will, 24)
‘I stayed in a little bit longer but it started to get really uncomfortable because the woman kept swimming past and tutting at me,’ she added.
‘I usually wear high-waisted bottoms but as I had been going everyday my other pairs were in the wash.’
However she remains determined, and said the incident hasn’t put her off going swimming – despite being hurt by the woman’s comments.
WHAT IS ULCERATIVE COLITIS?
Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition, where the colon and rectum become inflamed.
The colon is the large intestine (bowel), and the rectum is the end of the bowel where stools are stored.
Small ulcers can develop on the colon’s lining, and can bleed and produce pus.
Ulcerative colitis is thought to be an autoimmune condition. This means the immune system – the body’s defence against infection – goes wrong and attacks healthy tissue.
The most popular theory is that the immune system mistakes harmless bacteria inside the colon for a threat and attacks the tissues of the colon, causing it to become inflamed.
Exactly what causes the immune system to behave in this way is unclear. Most experts think it’s a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
An ileostomy is where the small bowel (small intestine) is diverted through an opening in the tummy (abdomen).
The opening is known as a stoma. A special bag is placed over the stoma to collect waste products that usually pass through the colon (large intestine) and out of the body through the rectum and back passage (anus).
Source: NHS Choices
Mrs Hughes said: ‘That lady has no idea what I’ve been through for the last seven years.
‘Luckily for me I love my bag and I love my body. It looks after me everyday, it fights infection it keeps my heart racing and my blood pumping.
‘So whatever anyone may think of me it will never affect me.’
Mrs Hughes, who married to her partner Will, 24, last year, started to suffer from the condition while at college – but doctors put it down to a bug.
She was initially diagnosed with gastroenteritis and was given diarrhoea tablets.
But by this point she had missed four weeks of college due to her bowel problems and lost a stone and a half.
Mrs Hughes seen by another GP after her father became angry and demanded answers.
This doctor sent her to hospital immediately taken by ambulance to hospital, where she was seen by a specialist.
Mrs Hughes said her mother warned her that it could be bowel cancer – leaving her to believe she was dying.
She said doctors tried to carry out a colonoscopy, which involves using a thin flexible tube to examine the colon and find ulcers and tumours – but her bowel was too inflamed.
Doctors then revealed she had ulcerative colitis – as her mother looked down upon her as she thought it was a sexually transmitted infection.
She was put on various medications, including steroids to take the inflammation down, which would work for a short while before her symptoms would worsen again.
She spent years in and out of hospital, often being drip fed as her weight plummeted, and on one occasion even needed oxygen after a bad reaction to medication.
Her operation, carried out on May 5 this year, involved removing her entire large intestine before the end of her small intestine is brought out through an opening in the wall of her abdomen (the opening of her bowel which attaches to the bag is pictured)
Mrs Hughes battled for nearly six years with different tablets on varying dosages and said doctors were running out of things to do.
The final straw for Jade was when medics said they were going to try her on a placebo medication to ‘see if it was in her head’.
She was given another round of steroids before she was asked if she had considered surgery – as a very last option.
Mrs Hughes said she had been thinking about it for a while and would often ask her husband what he would think because ‘it’s not the most attractive thing’.
But he was worried that her severe weight loss – as she now weighed just five and a half stone and was wearing children’s bras – was affecting her and he agreed she should go ahead with it.
Her operation, carried out on May 5 this year, involved removing her entire large intestine before the end of her small intestine is brought out through an opening in the wall of her abdomen.
An external bag, known as an ileostomy or stoma, is fitted onto the opening to collect the waste, which is emptied and changed when necessary.
Mrs Hughes claimed she nearly passed out when she saw the stoma the first time – while her husband nearly fainted when he watched her change it.
She now needs a second operation to have her rectum removed because that still gets affected by ulcers.
Mrs Hughes was diagnosed at age 17, after months of having agonising stomach cramps and passing blood when she went to the loo. She finally had surgery to remove her bowel age 23
But she said surgeons don’t want to do that just yet as it can affect her chances of having children in the future.
She continued: ‘It’s changed my life so much in the three months since the operation, it’s mental.
‘Even going for a walk I would need to take a change of clothes, a bucket and some wet wipes just in case.’
Mrs Hughes believes the support of her family has helped her get through her journey with the chronic condition.
She added: ‘Will has had to deal with so much but he’s been so supportive. He’s just amazing.
‘The amount of times we’ve been out in public and he’s had to pull over so I could go to the toilet in a field.
‘The pain you get with it is really bad and you can wake up in the middle of the night screaming in pain and he would be there for me.’
Mrs Hughes now uses social media to document her recovery and inspire other girls not to be ashamed of their bodies.
To find out more about Ulcerative Colitis visit crohnsandcolitis.org.uk