Hello everyone, it's been a while! I haven't posted on my blog in over 2 years now, so where have I been? Well, University took over my life when I went back in September 2021, I have been FAR busier than I expected I would be, 3rd year was so jam packed with rehearsals and classes that My Crohn’s and Me ended up on the backburner. But now that I have finished, I am ready to get straight back into raising awareness for IBD and helping the Crohn’s community feel proud of their illness. I am very proud to say that I have graduated from Drama School with a 2:1 in BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Triple ..read more

When moving to University, one of the main things you must plan ahead for as an IBD fighter is how you are going to get access to medication, treatment and healthcare professionals. Everyone with Crohns and Colitis has a range of different meds they need access to, some easier to get, others not so easy. I use many different means of delivery including Echo (Newly named Llyods Direct) and Sciencesus (Formally named HealthCare At Home). I may have a different experience to many others at University as I only moved 1 hour away from home, so personally if I need I can come home to pick up medicat ..read more

Living at University with IBD can be very daunting, especially if you're very used to living at home with your parents, near your doctors and having a nice comfortable room for when you are in a flare up. There's no doubt that living in shared accommodation is definitely an interesting experience, for some it's exactly what they want, but it doesn't suit everyone. When I started Uni in September of 2020 I didn't have Crohn's Disease, I was incredibly fit and healthy, it was only in the middle of the 1st semester that I started getting symptoms and then at the end of the 1st Term I was diagnose ..read more

So, I haven't really been posting on my blog in a few months, and I have been questioning whether to talk about why. I have always been someone that acts as the therapist of the group, I spew out advice like its second nature but never follow it myself, I preach positivity and happiness but only do that online. I do things like blame anxiety on being a stress head and blame depression on just a bad day. Mental Health is something I have always taken so seriously in everyone around me but never myself. I think it's something to do with my pride and not wanting to seem weak. I will accept I am s ..read more

Autoimmune Diseases like IBD can have a debilitating impact on the way you live. I have spent the past 6 months learning to adapt and change. One of the hardest parts for me has been learning to accept I will never be who I was before I got sick, now that doesn't mean that I cannot do everything I did before. In fact, I think Crohn’s has given me the strength and drive to go out there and do whatever I want when I want, but there is no denying that my life has changed and I wont get the old Lucy back. It is easy to slip into a negative mindset and start to hate your new life. I spent many mont ..read more

Until it happens to you, you can never truly understand how having a Chronic illness feels. Unlike many Crohn’s fighters, I did not suffer years of struggle before my diagnosis, one minute I was bubbly energetic Lucy with no worries in the world and the next I was unable to move on a hospital bed. You never expect to get such a debilitating illness aged 18, but you have no choice but to just keep going. One of the hardest parts is feeling like no one really gets it, when people ask if I've recovered yet, I have to go through the whole process of explaining that I will never recover. Because of ..read more

People always ask me how I manage to stay so positive throughout my battle with Crohn's, I find the answer very complicated to word. I am stuck between giving people hope through tough times and showing the reality of the disease. I have been flaring up pretty badly the past 3 weeks and hence haven't been posting on my blog, but I have had time to think about what being positive means to me, its not straight forward and its not all about happiness, it's about acceptance and journey. I have realised that social media portrays a toxic outlook on positivity, making people feel like they have to ..read more

For those of you who don't know who Gracie Keeping is, she’s one of my closest friends and biggest inspirations. I met her almost 3 years ago at college and we used to do Drama classes together, she battled cancer for over 3 years and showed such strength and courage the whole way throughout. When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease back in December last year, my first thought was of Gracie. Seeing her battle Leukaemia only just after beating acute lymphoblastic lymphoma and managing to still stay so positive, proved to me that I can be strong and fight Crohn's just like she fights cancer. W ..read more

I have always been a massive advocate of body positivity and have preached self love for many years, but when I started to notice Crohn's symptoms, I struggled to follow my own advice. For the first time in my life, when I moved to University and met Tom I actually started to love my body, something I have been working on since I was very young, but Crohn’s completely destroyed that. Both the disease itself and treatment cause weight fluctuation, bloating and often ends in scars, marks and bumps. Around November 2020 is when my symptoms really began to get bad, I was passing a lot of blood an ..read more

Crohn's attacks are incredibly scary and painful experiences for IBD fighters, they are a very sudden increase in symptoms, often bleeding of the ulcers, severe inflammation of the intestines, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and extreme exhaustion. They can lead to a flare up, which results in having to be treated by steroids for a few months. However, if caught and treated fast enough, it may only be a short term struggle. They can be triggered by stress and anxiety, trigger foods that your stomach cannot break down and other environmental factors. I have experienced 2 and both have ended ..read more