Face the sunshine

I've recently started volunteering with an organisation funded by Macmillan Cancer Support. This role is as well as my Girlguiding role and not instead of. I've registered as a befriender in my local community and regularly visit an individual that has been affected by cancer. I provide companionship and support and usually start my visits with a catch up about the week and having a hot drink together. It's great to be able to give back in my community even if it's just on a small basis, I know that I'm part of a support network for someone.

I'm seeing an improvement in my fitness and a great measurement of this is burpees! I started the year barely being able to do them properly, partly due to strength and partly mind of matter of my head telling me that I would collapse if I tried to hit the floor with my hands whilst kicking my legs back! I'm still very slow at them and will never break any records doing the 'one minute challenge' of how many you can do but my technique is a lot better and my stamina has improved so that I can fully get down, do a press up, jump up and do a tuck jump - far more of an advanced burpee than what I was previously doing. I'm really enjoying high intensity classes at the gym including circuits and a GRIT class where I'm even doing jumping lunges which I wasn't just a couple of months ago. The GRIT session is 30 minutes of high intensity exercises which you do for short periods of time with rest periods in-between. I feel a real sense of achievement when I'

The photo on the right was taken just before my one year stomaversary (anniversary of having a stoma) and the one on the left was taken by a friend about a year before. I know how long it can take for the side effects of steroids to wear off and I have a full on 'moon-face' in the left photo as I was still taking lots of steroids and had been on them for a long time. Although horrified at first when the photo on the left popped up on a Facebook timeline from a 'year ago today' I was actually pleased to see it as I felt in comparison to recent photos, I am looking a lot better/healthier. I feel that my hair is a lot thicker, healthier and is able to grow and I just generally feel better in myself. It's great to have photographic evidence to show me how much the steroids had affected me and to see how far I have come in a year as I think sometimes it's easy to forget just how poorly we have been/how much we can go through with Crohns or Ulcerative Colitis. A

I've recently signed up for two trail runs that look pretty serious as I've been emailed a required kit list for the events! I'm not getting too far ahead of myself and they're both 10K or under as that's the maximum distance I have run so far. I've also signed up for a trail running workshop as I do like to do things properly! I watched a video where a sports injury coach mentioned that running is the only sport where people literally buy a pair of shoes and just start running...you wouldn't do that with anything else like rugby or tennis and he explained that's why so many people get running injuries, as they don't have any technique. I'm looking forward to learning some techniques at the workshop to help with injury prevention and also meeting some like-minded people who are beginners to trail running and are looking to attend sessions that the workshop providers run (literally!) I watched another video about the ethos of trail running and

I recently celebrated my '1 year stomaversary' of my second permanent stoma and got a bit emotional thinking of all the things I am now able to do thanks to modern medicine and the surgical techniques that formed my stoma. Since having my stoma I've been paddleboarding, taken part in an aquathlon, started jogging and completed my first 10K. None of these are particularly ground-breaking for a lot of people but I find that I need to do more than a 'normal' person to stay fit and to get back to my pre-surgery weight/body I was happy with. I know that part of this is age but also that I am not absorbing all the goodness from foods that a 'normal' person with a functioning colon would be. The one year has flown by and I'm grateful on a daily basis that my stoma is enabling me to live an active lifestyle.

I've recently completed my first 10K run (jog/plod) and I was thrilled that I didn't crawl up the hill to the finish but managed to maintain a steady pace the whole way round. The course was off-road a mixture of fields, woodland and tracks - a very scenic course and I'm keen to do more trail running as I enjoy being out in the countryside and running by wildlife/surroundings like lakes or reservoirs.  I went on to complete another 10K that was more road based (not on the same day obviously!) I did this by doing a 5K Parkrun and then doing the same course again - making 4 laps in total. I knew I was never going to get a new PB for the Parkrun but I surprised myself at getting a time that wasn't too far off what I usually run it in, considering I was actively conserving energy knowing I needed to do twice what I usually do. I expected a few more people to be doing this however I was the only one and it did make a big difference, Parkrun is great as you're r