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When Jade Hughes was just 17 years old, she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a disease that afflicts the large intestine and causes the colon to become inflamed. She endured many nights of waking up in agonizing pain, in dire need of using the bathroom, before she decided to have part of her bowel removed to improve her condition.
Hughes had her bowel replaced with an ileostomy bag, a decision which made her incredibly self-conscious, but one that she hoped would allow her to improve her health.
“The operation has completely changed my life,” Hughes reported, “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 center so I could start putting some weight on as I’d dropped to five and a half stone.”
Unfortunately, not everyone was as positive about Hughes’ goal as she was.
Not long after Hughes began going to the pool to exercise, a woman in her 50s approached Hughes and asked, bluntly, “Do you think that’s appropriate for the pool?” while pointing at Hughes’ ileostomy bag.
Hughes was so shocked, she had no clue what to say. The woman continued in Hughes’ silence, “Well you know that shouldn’t be on show in the pool? It’s not very nice for young children to see,” and proceeded to report Hughes to the lifeguard.
Thankfully, the lifeguard was far more supportive than the woman, and reassured Hughes that she was more than welcome to stay and exercise at the pool.
Although the incident did hurt Hughes’ feelings and put a dent in her self-confidence, she remains determined to achieve her goals of becoming fitter. “I love my bag and I love my body,” Hughes said afterward, “It looks after me every day, it fights infection it [sic] keeps my heart racing and my blood pumping.”
