I fundraise for Crohn's & Colitis UK to help raise the profile of this disease, so that more people seek medical help and get diagnosed as soon as they can.
Jordan
Living with Crohn's
I was officially diagnosed with Crohn's Disease about 3 years ago and have been receiving treatment for the last 2 years. The treatment I'm on is infliximab, delivered by infusion every 8 weeks. It's changed my life massively. Being officially diagnosed has helped a lot, as it took a long time, and many tests, to get to the stage I'm at now. It meant I could get the help and treatment needed to control this disease.
As an active young male who plays sports everyday it changed and impacted my life negatively at the start.
The main problem that I suffer from is fatigue. It means I really struggle to keep up with the high intensity games that I take part in, and it takes me a lot longer to recover. When I don't play for a couple of weeks, it takes me even longer to get back into the swing of things.
I watch what I eat and drink every day and ensure I do everything I can to avoid a flare-up. I've found it very difficult to adjust to, but I need to change and learn so I can live with this for the rest of my life. With the developments of new foods and plant-based items, I'm still learning every day what I can do to prevent flare-ups.
This has emotionally, mentally, and physically drained me and put my body under a lot of strain and pressure, but with help from Crohn's & Colitis UK, my family, and my friends I've come to terms with it and started to fight back.
Both me and my father have organised different kinds of events to raise money for Crohn's & Colitis UK.
There've been some massive memorabilia auction nights, fishing competitions, collections at football matches, sponsored runs, pub quizzes, and much more.
As a footballer myself, our charity football match with celebrities and ex-professionals was a personal highlight of mine.
We had a Father Vs Son team setup. To have TV personalities and ex-footballers involved was massive to us and really set the bar high as it was our first major event which raised a lot of money. My dad has put a lot into setting up these events as well as getting prizes for our auctions and raffles. Without these, we wouldn't have touched the heights of money we have raised now.
The unique thing about this disease is that everyone is different, and everyone has their own story.
With that in mind, I think it's imperative that everyone voices their story and raises money to change the lives of people living with this difficult disease.
Feeling inspired?
Jordan has raised an incredible £7,505 since he started fundraising for us.
