"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It's what the sunflowers do."

This Helen Keller quote was the inspiration for this blog. Sunflowers were my favourite flower when I was younger, I was born in April so have learnt to see the beauty in April showers and I truly believe light will always shine through even in the darkest of places.
Posts on this blog will aim to show that you can live an active, healthy and happy life with an invisible illness.


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Comfizz support wear review

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The helpful team over at Comfizz sent me a support wear belt to try out as an 'active ostomate' and it was great to be involved with reviewing something from the point of view of someone who uses support wear and has a good idea of what they're looking for.   After a few emails to find out what I wanted from a support wear garment, Lorraine from Comfizz suggested I tried out the level 3 support wear belt. This level provides firm support and according to the Comfizz website is, "ideal for holding hernias, protecting hernia repairs and giving extra support during strenuous activity." Unfortunately, a hernia formed during the operation for my first stoma and that stoma also prolapsed, so I wear support wear to prevent another hernia forming and to prevent my stoma prolapsing. I don't have a hernia at the moment and am happy with how much of my stoma protrudes from my abdomen - enough to empty waste into my bag but not so much that it prolapses and causes issues.
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Support wear

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I use support wear on a daily basis and am always in it unless I am in the shower or swimming. I wear it around the house, to work, to exercise and to sleep in. I have different items of support wear that provide varying levels of support depending on what I am doing. If I am sleeping or sat watching tv I have a very low level of support and if I am running or doing a class at the gym I wear my highest level of support. I have a few items from the high street that are tummy control type garments so they're either knickers that come high up your abdomen or they're long vests that are made of much tighter material than a vest usually would be. However what I use the most are the two below items that are both made by Suportx. There are a lot of manufacturers of specialist support wear for people with stomas and for hernia preventation, I have found Suportx meets my needs the best. My first stoma resulted in a hernia and so I've been wearing support wear for as long as I ha
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My first trail event

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I recently took part in my first official trail event and was pleased to see that even at more official events there was still cake at the end of the run! There were two events taking place on the day, a short run of 6.6km and a longer run of a whopping 16.8km that I think I would have struggled to walk, sounds a great, long distance! As it was my first event I registered for the shorter run to see how I got on and judging by the entries for the longer distance am glad I did as they looked like professional athletes that could go on to bike and swim after their event. Everyone was emailed a required kit list in advance of the day and here's a photo of mine in an Inov8 'ultra race' pack...I don't think I'll ever be racing anywhere and certainly not in any 'ultra' mode! In my pack I had: windproof jacket, running cap, waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, compass, spare change, tissues, protein bar, babybel, banana, water, my phone, a map of the route
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