{"id":484387,"date":"2026-05-14T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484387\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:10:12","slug":"dundalk-crohns-sufferer-shares-story-ahead-of-world-ibd-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484387\/","title":{"rendered":"Dundalk Crohn’s sufferer shares story ahead of World IBD Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Reilly from Dundalk<\/a>,\u00a0who people may recognise as a Gogglebox Ireland\u00a0TV critic, lives with\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease<\/p>\n

With\u00a0World IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) Day coming up on Tuesday May 19,\u00a0Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Ireland is mounting a new campaign,\u00a0‘It Takes A Village’,\u00a0to highlight the role that we can all play in supporting people with the condition.<\/p>\n

Estimated to affect 50,000 people here in Ireland, the charity has developed a new hands-on guide, and is hosting a webinar on May 19.<\/p>\n

Sarah, age 31,\u00a0is married to David and works with AIB Life, and says her three French bulldogs are her life. She was diagnosed with\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease in 2017. Sarah said: \u201cAt the time, I had pain in my lower right side and attended A&E, where I was initially told it was \u2018textbook appendicitis\u2019 but which a scan subsequently found to be an inflamed ileum.<\/p>\n

“After my mam and I begged a nurse for some information, we were reluctantly told that they thought it was\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease but couldn\u2019t say much else. I had never heard of it before and I was terrified. I wasn\u2019t sure what it meant or how serious it was.<\/p>\n

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“Eventually the doctors came and spoke to me. I spent a week in hospital, the whole time of which I had to spend fasting, while waiting for different procedures and tests to happen, before being discharged as an outpatient with a course of steroids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 22 when I was diagnosed, and I had no real idea what it meant. Initially, the support that I was offered was not great. The most information I received on\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease was when my now husband printed out the whole Wikipedia page for me when I came home from hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sarah, the past couple of years have been quite tough:\u00a0\u201cMy\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease has been the worst it\u2019s ever been which has been hard to deal with both mentally and physically. I have been referred for a bowel resection now, and I\u2019m hopeful that this will help.<\/p>\n

“For me the fear of what\u2019s to come is always in my mind. I definitely struggle with the lack of control I have over the disease. I have worked really hard to try and improve my mental health and something that has helped empower me so much has been running.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started running in 2024 after going through a really difficult patch where I was completely consumed by my health. The stress I was under was making my symptoms worse and the symptoms I was having were making my stress worse.<\/p>\n

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“I was caught in a cycle. I wasn\u2019t bubbly anymore. I was unable to concentrate and be in the moment with the people I loved. I just wanted to survive rather than live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah says it\u2019s really important to let people know how you\u2019re doing, and to accept help:\u00a0\u201cThe impact on mental health that\u00a0Crohn\u2019s Disease has is huge. It\u2019s important to speak up about how you\u2019re feeling. I think that\u2019s something that I struggled to do.<\/p>\n

“I always felt I wasn\u2019t sick enough to complain, that it could be much worse, and that I was fine. So much so, that I bottled everything up until it was too late. It\u2019s hard to explain to everyone in your life what\u00a0Crohn\u2019s is and how it impacts you. It can be exhausting to even try.<\/p>\n

“However, if those around you know and understand, it can really bring a lot of relief to you. I\u2019m so lucky to have the support I have from my husband, friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was first diagnosed, my husband and I had only been dating a few months. To come to terms with a lifelong disease at 22 and at this stage of a relationship was huge. My husband has always taken it in his stride, but me, not so much! It impacts so many elements of our lives, for instance where you can live as I need access to medication and healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m always aware of the impact my disease has on those around me and it\u2019s only recently I\u2019ve started to accept the help that\u2019s offered. I never wanted to burden anyone and that can be difficult for me and my loved ones to navigate.<\/p>\n

“Whether it\u2019s just someone coming along to an appointment to listen in and support, a friend offering to change plans to stay in rather than go out, or a family member picking up your prescription for you, it all really makes a difference.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt Takes a Village\u00a0to live with IBD. People with IBD simply can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d says Victoria Spillane, Chief Operating Officer,\u00a0Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For every person navigating the ups and downs of IBD, a new campaign by Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Ireland aims to highlight the fact that no one person with IBD lives in a vacuum.\u00a0A new hands-on guide,\u00a0It Takes a Village, has been published busting myths, advising on language to use, and to avoid, and offering guidance on how to be a great ally.<\/p>\n

A major webinar is also taking place on May 19 from 7-8.15pm, featuring contributions from\u00a0Dr Susan Brannick, a\u00a0clinical psychologist with expertise in IBD, and clinical director with Aware, and\u00a0Sarah Reilly.<\/p>\n

Both Susan and Sarah will be highlighting the importance of having the support of the \u201cvillage\u201d when living with IBD, how to go about identifying support networks, and pointing to lots of real-world ways that we can all help. <\/p>\n

It promises to be essential viewing for all those who can play a role in supporting people with IBD. To register for the free webinar, visit\u00a0www.crohnscolitis.ie\/ItTakesAVillage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Reilly from Dundalk,\u00a0who people may recognise as a Gogglebox Ireland\u00a0TV critic, lives with\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease With\u00a0World IBD (Inflammatory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[23663,18,135,19,17,23664],"class_list":{"0":"post-484387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dundalk","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-louth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116573334833347158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}