A Lanarkshire man has bravely spoken out about his battle with Crohn's disease which left him weighing just six stone.
Kieran McLaughlin has nearly doubled his weight in recent years thanks to his determined approach to his recovery, with new medication and better flexibility on eating helping him.
And the pandemic has actually helped with his routine, allowing him to eat at the right times when working from his home in Blantyre.
The 26-year-old, originally from Eddlewood in Hamilton was struck by the disease when he was just a teenager and, despite terrifying symptoms, he initially thought it was just a "bad bug".
Kieran suffered severe cramps and discovered blood in the toilet before being diagnosed with Crohn's which led to hair loss, chronic cramps, weight loss, and a colostomy bag as his body began to attack itself.
Crohn's disease is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed.
The Lanarkshire man, throughout his battle, dropped to just six stone at his lowest ebb, leaving him drained, exhausted, depressed, and feeling like he "missed out on a lot".
But Kieran, who works as a software tester, was determined to get back to health with new medications and even managed to go up four waist sizes during lockdown.
Kieran told of how it felt good to reach 11st as a milestone of his recovery and believes being able to work from home was a huge factor in that.
He told Lanarkshire Live : "Working from home has been a massive help for me. I’ve been full time working from home since March 2020 and during that time the abscess I had flared up and I spent some time in hospital and I felt like I could come back to work a bit earlier than I would’ve since I didn’t have to deal with the commute and the longer hours that come with that.
"The company I previously worked with was in Edinburgh so the commute felt really draining on the days I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent.
"Being in the house made it a lot easier to eat at the right times and eat better than I would’ve just running out for lunch at the office.
"Having to go into the office messed with eating at normal times so sometimes I’d get in a bit late to sit down for a full dinner or end up ordering a takeaway. Leaving early morning I was always a bit queasy so I’d often skip breakfast altogether.
"Working from home also made it a lot easier for me to manage my medication and take it consistently at the right time.
"It sounds weird but with the colostomy bag, it almost feels like it’s a schedule for me, it’ll be ready for me to change around lunchtime each day and it’s a lot easier to manage that in the house.
" The bag had changed my life but it was a bit of a pain when I had to deal with it filling up in places it’s not as easy to change like on trains or buses. That and I’m about paranoid with the noises it makes especially around people who wouldn’t be used to it."
Kieran is now on immunosuppressant drugs which have kept his condition under control.
Since the first lockdown in 2020, he has went up four waist sizes and is now feeling a lot more confident in himself - and he has been helped with fantastic support from friends, family and his girlfriend.
Kieran admitted his life was turned upside down at 18 when he was first diagnosed.
He had to undergo several surgeries to drain abscess as a result of violent flare ups, and went from six stone in 2014 to eight by 2018.
Kieran added: “It’s weird, it almost came out of nowhere for me. I thought I had a bad bug but then it never went away.
"It was a shock as it’s caused by problems with your immune system so at 18 when I had never really had any bad sickness but then got diagnosed with a disease that was causing my immune system to attack my insides.
“I was so ill I was dropping weight, had severe cramps and going to the toilet constantly throughout the day with lots of blood.
“I ended up having to get a colostomy bag fitted to relieve the abscess. That was really scary at the time but now I can’t imagine my life without it, it’s brought a lot more comfort to my life.
"I always felt really fatigued which came with me feeling really depressed with it.
"I always had to consider if there would be toilets wherever I was going and hope I didn’t feel wiped out, I missed out on quite a lot because of this."
Kieran is now sharing his experience to help others open up after admitting he often felt embarrassed to reach out.
He is urging anyone worried about their health to contact their GP to "avoid things potentially getting worse."
Kieran said: "Sometimes it’s a bit embarrassing for me to speak about it but I’m a bit used to it now so hopefully it helps anyone who’s just starting to going through something similar.
"Now is the best I’ve felt with it in a long time. Things feel a lot more consistent with my health and my medication is working really well.
"Going through the big flare ups at the time was awful but it got to some points where it almost felt normal to feel as sick as I did or to see much weight I had lost.
"There are still some bad days but I know how to manage them a lot better than I did before.
"I also need to be aware that things could change very quickly so I need to stay on top of any changes I notice and let the IBD nurses know as soon as, rather than leaving it to a point where it’s really bad which I’m quite guilty of!
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