A woman is raising awareness for colitis after a daring skydive gave her the confidence to open up about the “embarrassing” condition she hid from almost all her friends and family for a decade.
Nancy Ndure, 27, a wealth management trainee from Telford in Shropshire, has been plagued by symptoms of colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, since she was a teenager.
While Nancy was originally diagnosed with pancolitis – a form of ulcerative colitis that affects the entire large intestine or bowel – back in 2013, she kept it a secret until just last month.
She said: “I only told my mum and one close friend. Most people in my life didn’t know.
“Looking back, I wish I could have been more open about my diagnosis but I was so embarrassed.
“There is such a stigma about poo and discussing bowel movements that I didn’t want anyone to know about the issues I was having.”
She added: “Speaking out now, I’m hoping to break down that taboo because the more comfortable people feel about it, the more likely they will be to go to their doctor when something isn’t right, instead of living in pain.”
For Nancy, her problems began at 14 when she was at secondary school and started feeling exhausted and fatigued.
She said: “Doctors didn’t think it was serious, they said it was just a teenage phase that would pass.”
But by the time she reached sixth-form college, Nancy was struggling to control her bowels – which led to her needing to rush to the toilet unexpectedly.
However, she hid her problems from all her classmates.
“I’d have toilet accidents at college where I’d have to call my mum to pick me up. Sometimes I’d spend an hour in the disabled toilet just waiting for her to turn up,” she said.
The final straw came at the age of 17, when she started to find blood in her poo.
She said: “I knew then that I had to get medical help.”
Diagnosed with pancolitis, Nancy was in and out of hospital for procedures over the next five years – starting with being fitted with a stoma bag, so her bowel could be bypassed and her poo could be collected in the pouch attached to an opening in her tummy.
I wish I could shake my younger self and tell her to speak freely— Nancy Ndure
She said: “I had three surgeries during this time, the first one being to fit me with a stoma bag when I was 19.
“At the time I was devastated because I really didn’t want the bag because I felt embarrassed and ashamed but it was the only way to help me get better, and surgeons hoped it would be a temporary situation.
“I didn’t think anyone would understand, so I tried not to tell people if I could get away with it.”
Around three years after having her stoma bag fitted, in 2018, Nancy suffered internal bleeding.
She said: “I needed emergency surgery and I was ill for quite a while with it, and it took a long time for me to actually recover.”
Even once she could get out and about again, Nancy struggled to adjust to life with a stoma bag.
“I started to hate going out because I was always worried about finding a suitable loo to empty the bag and I’d often get stares if I used an accessible toilet because my illness wasn’t obvious,” she remembered.
“Luckily though, in 2018, I had a third surgery to have the bag procedure reversed.”
This means Nancy is now able to use the toilet normally and does not have a stoma bag anymore.
Nancy says it took time to get used to her new body.
She said: “You definitely live life differently after having the bag and then having it removed because I had to get used to my body again and relearning when I needed to use the toilet and knowing when to go.
“But, ultimately, I’m very glad that I was lucky enough to have the procedure reversed.”
After recovering from the surgeries, Nancy wanted to mark the milestone.
She said: “I was at my lowest and I was sick of feeling low. I really wanted to do something crazy, something I couldn’t have done when I was unwell and the idea of a skydive popped into my head.
“It took a bit of planning and was called off once due to Covid, but in August 2022 I finally took the plunge.”
On the day, Nancy jumped from the plane at 12,000ft with her mum, Julie, 64, watching from the ground.
She said: “Screaming my lungs out while falling out of a plane just released all the stress I’d been holding. It was absolutely amazing.
“When I became weightless in the air, I shed all my emotional baggage. I realised that colitis made me into a better person and I am proud of who I am now and would not change anything.
“I felt like I did not have to hide anything any more. It allowed me to open up about my journey and connect with people who have been through similar experiences.”
Nancy has raised £1,300 for the charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK.
She said: “I was always very sporty and athletic, and dreamt of being a professional high jumper when I was younger. My condition left my body in the condition where I was simply not up to that level of exercise.
“After I felt like I’d got my ‘normal’ back, I decided that if I was coming back, I was going to do it with a bang and skydiving was the first step.”
She added: “By doing this fundraiser for Crohn’s & Colitis UK, I have been able to share my experience as a colitis warrior.”
Now, Nancy is determined to raise awareness of the condition so people can get the help they need earlier.
She said: “I want to talk about it openly so someone else doesn’t feel like they can’t.
You know your body best, so listen to your gut, and put your foot down when you know you’re right— Nancy Ndure
“I wish I could shake my younger self and tell her to speak freely. I wish I had the person I have become by my side when I was suffering alone.
“I want people to be able to go to their GP and explain the kind of symptoms I was having without being embarrassed. You aren’t too young to be diagnosed with colitis. It might not just be a teenage thing.
“You know your body best, so listen to your gut, and put your foot down when you know you’re right.”
