"I keep looking forward." – Emily’s story of diagnosis and resilience

Emily lives with multiple health conditions and began experiencing symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis as a child. After years of misdiagnosis, she shares her journey through childhood illness, delayed diagnosis, and adulthood with multiple chronic conditions, highlighting not only the physical challenges she has faced, but also the resilience and empathy she has developed along the way.

I was just nine years old when I first experienced symptoms of colitis. I was bleeding when I went to the toilet, and although I knew where it was coming from, every time I visited the GP I was told it was just my period. For years throughout my childhood and teenage life, I was passed back and forth between doctors while I tried to find answers.

Eventually, my symptoms were taken seriously, and I was referred to a specialist in London for further investigations, where I was finally diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.

There was relief in finally having an explanation, but I was still extremely unwell. On the train home with my mum, we received a phone call from the hospital to say my iron levels were dangerously low and that I needed to return as an emergency for treatment. I was told I was so anaemic that I was lucky not to have lost my life. By this point, I had started to lose my hair and was incredibly underweight.