Meet the Chesterfield woman walking a marathon to raise awareness of Crohn's disease

Elizabeth, 21, is a medical student who was diagnosed with Crohn’s eight years ago and, in June, will be walking a marathon distance around Chesterfield for CCUK as part of their MyWalkIt fundraising challenge.

Crohn's disease is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed: there is currently no known cure – although treatment can help reduce or control symptoms.

Elizabeth, who has lived in Chesterfield her whole life, will tackle the mammoth challenge on June 24 – one year to the day since she was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery on her bowel.

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“I had surgery last year and I guess I wanted to do something like this to prove that I had recovered and I’m really excited to be giving something back to such a wonderful charity that really supported me through it”, Elizabeth explained.

She added: “(Having Crohn’s disease) can make even the most simple of things incredibly difficult and it can have a huge impact on daily life. Over time you get used to what you can manage but it can be a real challenge.”

Crohn’s and Colitis UK (CCUK) was founded in 1979 and promotes awareness around early diagnosis for the conditions which impact over 500,000 people across the country. The charity currently has around 50,000 members.

Elizabeth said she was keen to support the charity and encouraged other people to get checked as soon as possible. She said: “It means so much because they do so much for so many people, they do it for people that are directly affected by it but for the wider friends and family to try and make going through Crohn’s as easy as possible. They advocated for early diagnosis and that’s one of their biggest things, because it took me about ten months to get diagnosed but some people can have it for up to three years,

“It can be easy to put it down to stress but it’s so important to get things checked as soon as possible because they can either put your mind at ease or help you get the support that you need.”