Ulcerative colitis is really rubbish - so much so that I allowed clever Drs to remove my large intestine, fit me with a Betty (bag) for 10 months while they built me a new, miniature large intestine using the end of my small intestine (confusing but bare with me). That consisted of 3 operations - 4 nights in intensive care, 4 weeks in hospital over the space of 11 months and a lot of pain! So as Cardiff half is just over a year to my last op I've decided to run it, and now that I think it's a doable goal, I thought I'd raise some money but more importantly awareness about the whole thing. I get a lot of questions about the experience and the illness itself - and I know there are far more people out there suffering than actually speak up (no one likes to talk about it) and so it's shocking that not more is known about the illness. When I was diagnosed and I asked what caused it - the consultant literally said 'nobody really knows what triggers autoimmunity'. And as amazing as the whole jpouch build was, it's mad to think that the best option for me in the year 2015 was to remove the organ and replace it with a colostomy bag (I really wish there was a prettier word for it), until a small replacement was built. And even then - the replacement is no match for the real thing and nothing will ever go back to how I was when I was well. So hopefully - if enough people talk and enough priority is placed on the research - things will change - and big intestines will behave again X