Last summer Mark Woodcock, aged 33, was rushed to hospital with a Colitis flare. While on a FaceTime call with his wife, who was unable to visit him in hospital due to coronavirus restrictions, he had to make the difficult decision to undergo ileostomy surgery.
“They said I had two choices, have a stoma or try another drug, but there’s only a 20% chance of that working,” says Mark, a traffic officer who has worked for West Midlands Police since 2008. “This being my second hospital stay, I kept thinking I can't keep doing this to my kids.”
A father of two, Mark’s Colitis began in 2015, soon after he married his wife, Becky, who also serves as a police officer.
“It was probably about six months after I got married. We'd been on holiday to the Canary Islands and I had an omelette and was really bad that night with sickness and diarrhoea for about two days,” he explains. “I think that was the trigger for me. A month after that holiday, I started to bleed from the backside.”
Fearing the worst, Mark was quickly sent for a colonoscopy and received his Ulcerative Colitis diagnosis. For the next few years, he was able to manage his condition well with aminosalicylates (5-ASAs), before having his first flare-up suddenly in 2017.
“I couldn't go out of the house for fear of having an accident,” Mark says. “What I really struggled with was fatigue; my daughter was only one then, and I found it really difficult to pick her up or play with my eldest lad.”
After being put on vedolizumab Mark went into remission and was able to manage his condition again for another few years, until a second flare-up struck in March 2020, just as the UK entered into its first nationwide lockdown.
Taken quickly into hospital, Mark was placed on steroids, azathioprine and put back on vedolizumab. Due to coronavirus regulations, he had to be sent home to shield and spent the next few months home-schooling his children. He was given the go-ahead to return to work in June, but then his Colitis took a turn for the worst.
“I remember going out for a wedding anniversary meal but couldn't drink the beer and couldn't eat the food,” says Mark. “I thought you know what, if you can't drink beer, there's something quite wrong there.”
Mark was admitted back to hospital in August, and, due to coronavirus regulations, had no visitors for three weeks. After getting his stoma bag, and a further operation in December to remove his rectal stump, his recovery has been quick. He is extremely grateful to Dr Waraich and his team at Walsall Manor Hospital for all their care and support.
He’s also had great support from his employers at West Midlands Police, where he has worked since 2002. In 2019 they were voted the second-best employer in the UK for diversity and inclusion.
“I can't sing their praises enough,” says Mark. “Any appointments I needed, I got time off for, and there was no issue when I was having a flare-up with having time off.
“Obviously at work they knew that it was bad and when I couldn't do certain jobs, I could have a few days in the office. They were really, really supportive and I think having an employer that’s like that is key.”
Mark now uses Twitter to spread awareness of Crohn’s and Colitis and increase visibility of police officers working with the conditions. “I watched all of Crohn's & Colitis UK’s videos on Facebook and they were brilliant. I thought, well, how can I try and do something to help. There’s quite a lot of people who want to help raise awareness, and I thought I'll try Twitter. I spoke to my work and they've set me up with an official West Midlands Police account.”
Mark also hopes to use his Twitter account as a way of connecting with other officers living with Crohn’s and Colitis to share their experience. Find him at @StomaCopWMP
For support on living with a stoma check out our stoma web page.
