The more research we do, the more lives we can save - Please donate this Christmas

Dear reader,

In 2021, following severe abdominal pain over the Christmas and New Year period, I ended up in A&E where I was diagnosed with diverticulitis - a disease of the bowel (colon) where small bulges (diverticula) stick out through areas of weakness in the bowel wall. I had such severe inflammation that it created a hole in my bowel wall, which led to life-threatening sepsis. The sepsis meant I needed immediate emergency bowel surgery and was hours away from dying. When I woke up from the operation it was with a stoma (an opening that is made through the tummy connecting the bowel to the surface) which had a colostomy bag attached where my poo was collected, something I had no time to mentally prepare for.

Living with a stoma and recovering from major abdominal surgery is difficult at the best of times, but doing this over the Christmas period and during lockdown restrictions was particularly tough. This Christmas I am encouraging people with bowel issues to talk about their conditions and seek medical help if they are suffering from sudden pain in the lower left side of the abdomen, which is the most common symptom of diverticulitis.

Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, bloating or gas and constipation. Diverticulitis is a far less well-known bowel disease than bowel cancer but severe cases can be, and are, fatal for many.

Don’t be like me and leave it so late. Catching bowel conditions early makes them so much easier to treat and take it from me, ending up in a critical condition at Christmas time is not ideal.

Diverticular disease is very common. Over 50% of the UK population have it by the time they are 50 years old, and this rises further to 70% by age 80*.

Despite it affecting such a large percentage of the UK population, most people I speak to about diverticulitis have never heard of it and there is still very little known about how best to treat the disease. That’s why thanks to supporters like you, Bowel Research UK were able to award over ￡50,000 to launch an international research project to better understand diverticular disease. But more funds are urgently needed to take this underfunded area of research to the next level.

DAMASCUS

The study named “DAMASCUS” was established in 2020 conducted by one of Bowel Research UK’s researchers Mr Dale Vimalachandran, a consultant colorectal surgeon at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Dale’s world-leading study, funded by Bowel Research UK, is truly patient-centred.

The study investigates the management of severe diverticulitis on an international scale. The aims of the study are to understand and to improve the treatment of diverticulitis across the world with particular focus on the UK.

The study has been a huge success so far, recruiting over 6,000 patients from more than 200 hospitals across the world. This makes it one of the largest ever studies of patients with severe diverticulitis. But there is still lots more work that needs to be done. By donating today Bowel Research UK can help save more lives and have better outcomes for people, like me, who suffer from this disease.

Mr Vimalachandran hopes that the findings from this study will improve the daily lives of thousands of patients with diverticulitis and prevent life threatening situations like mine.

Diverticulitis and other bowel diseases, like cancer, affect hundreds of thousands of people every day. I am only here today because of bowel research. Bowel Research UK provide lifesaving research that leads to earlier diagnosis, better treatments, quicker recovery and patient-led insights to improve the lives of those affected by bowel diseases. None of this lifesaving work

is possible without donations from people like you.

It is only thanks to supporters like you that Bowel Research UK have come so far in their mission to beat bowel diseases, but they still have so much further to go. Bowel Research UK firmly believes that finding a cure for bowel diseases and finding better treatments to mitigate or eradicate bowel disease is possible.

The more money Bowel Research UK can raise this Christmas, the faster they can stop people dying needlessly from bowel diseases like diverticulitis. Will you join me in supporting them today? With a donation today you can help vital research which leads to breakthroughs that give people like me more options and more hope. Together we can help people with bowel disease live long and happy lives with their families. Please make a donation today.

Thank you so much for supporting Bowel Research UK.

Best wishes,

Eric Douglin.