My name is Dan Dry Dock Shockley, retired U.S. Navy, Operation Desert Storm; Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veteran and 9 year hereditary colon cancer WARRIOR w/a permanent ileostomy. In May 2012, while I resided in Hawaii, my first and only colonoscopy at age 51 was performed. The results revealed 100 polyps embedded throughout my colon,

I always wanted to live a unique life. Little did I know God would make it an extraordinary one. Everything was going fine until the second year of my college in 2017, I was diagnosed with a chronic disease named Ulcerative Colitis and was immediately put on 52mg steroid dosage for 45 days to suppress

Hi, my name is Josie. I’m 21 years old and am from Melbourne, Australia and this is how I got my ostomy. I was born with an anorectal malformation/imperforate anus. I suffered majorly with chronic constipation throughout my whole childhood. I relied on multiple laxatives & daily enemas and only went to the toilet once

My name is Paulina Kaszuba. I was born in London in 1984 and have since then lived all around the world: Poland, Italy, USA, and Asia. These days, I live in France where I recently became a mother.  At the age of nine my problems started; when I was 13 years old I had a total

I have been nursing on a surgical ward as a Registered Nurse since 2006. We care for a few specialities, including colorectal surgery. This has always been of interest to me and I loved to support those patients after their bowel operations, including stoma surgeries, however I never thought I would end up needing one

I’m an ostomy and IBD advocate plus an illustrator and graphic designer from Sydney, Australia. I love to create art to raise awareness about ostomy life and to show the positive side of living with a bag. On my 1 year stomaversary I painted a colourful ostomy mural at Bondi Beach in Sydney, proudly sponsored