We were thrilled to attend the Bite of Leeds event in May, where a group of students from Leeds Beckett University organised a Food and Craft Market, and raised an incredible £1,174 for Crohn's & Colitis UK.

This is an amazing achievement and we are so thrilled and grateful that Crohn’s & Colitis UK was chosen as the nominated charity. We loved being back in the community and raising awareness of IBD!

We recently spent the day raising awareness and fundraising at Chineham Shopping's, Matalan. We met so many people with Crohn's or Colitis. They were so glad to see us. Some had not come across the charity before and said it was good to see us raising awareness.

It was really good to get back out there. Raising money and awareness at Cardiff Rugby, whilst meeting other lovely volunteers keen to support such a vital cause. 

Raising awareness of IBD at Milton Keynes Hospital on World IBD day, together with the gastroenterology and IBD specialist team. It was great to be able to chat with people in-person again who were keen to know more about the conditions, or were living with Crohn's or Colitis themselves and wanted to have a chat about what the local network and the charity does.

We cannot wait to return. Chatting in-person to our regulars plus with those who are new to the Crohn's and Colitis community or who have only recently found Crohn's & Colitis UK is something I enjoy the most and is why I signed up to volunteer. Bringing people together,, showing them they are not alone, this is where we shine. 

For me personally, the absence of our monthly socials was difficult to process at first because it had become a safe space even for me.

Knowing that I could easily open up about anything with this group without having to hear comments like “well it could be worse” or “just try to be positive” meant that I never had to keep any part of this disease to myself anymore.

Things are beginning to go back to how they were pre-pandemic and I’m really looking forward to being able to host social events with my Local Network again!

You can't beat sharing experiences and stories in-person with like-minded people.

Ultimately our role about bringing local people together, and I look forward to meeting my local Crohn's and Colitis community, especially as I joined just before the pandemic so never got a chance to join our Local Network's coffee mornings before.

It's important to also recognise people may have different levels of comfort in returning to in-person events, so having both in-person and virtual gives people options to choose how they'd like to engage. 

I have a passion to help others, and by doing this I can help bring people together and assist in them getting the support from like-minded people.

Most of us thanks to COVID are now very familiar with the power of technology and it excited me to see this being used in a way to support those with Crohn's or Colitis.

Volunteering for this organisation will give me an incredible opportunity to give back to the IBD community, in the same way that they supported me during my diagnosis and initial management. I want to improve the lives of people living with IBD, and I can achieve that in a small but valuable way by volunteering for Crohn's & Colitis UK.