Thatcham man hosting charity golf day after Crohn’s and colitis ordeal

“I knew I didn’t have many options and when the doctor told me I had to have a bag in my stomach at 23-years of age, it was really tough.”

This is the experience of 23-year-old Lewis Woollard who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis last summer.

Mr Woollard knew there was something wrong with his health when he began to see blood in his stool at the end of last June.

He had blood tests taken at his GP surgery and nothing came back.

Stomach cramps followed the blood around two weeks later, Mr Woollard saw a different doctor and underwent a colonoscopy.

Treatment was given the day after his hospital admission – a biological medicine called infliximab – but it didn’t improve his symptoms.

After between three or four hospital admissions in July alone, Mr Woollard – a keen golfer who has been playing at Newbury and Crookham for the past 12 years – said he had no summer to himself and lost two-and-a-half stone in weight.

“I couldn’t eat very much and I was dehydrated all the time,” he said.

“In my head – going through what I did – I am thinking if they acted quicker, the drugs probably would have worked much better than they did.

“They did kind of work in bringing down my inflammatory markers but the symptoms didn’t go away.”

Inflammatory markers are blood tests used by doctors to detect inflammation in the body, caused by many diseases.

For the normal person they should be around 3 CRP (C-reactive protein). Mr Woollard’s were 160 CRP.

He underwent colostomy surgery on August 5 and now lives with a stoma bag.

He said: “The best option for me was to have the surgery and I was really ill throughout.

“I was sick for 12 days after surgery, I couldn’t eat or drink for a week, I had a chest infection and that didn’t help.”

“I was just looking into space most days after I got told and I couldn’t really think about anything else.

“It was really tough actually, I did break down a few times in hospital but not a lot after [surgery] really because it basically saved my life.”

Mr Woollard, who is now back at work but taking it easy at a new company, is also getting back to his golf.

“My handicap is five at the moment, so not bad,” he said.

Mr Woollard is hosting a charity golf day at Newbury and Crookham Golf Club with Crohn’s and Colitis Berkshire Network on April 28.

He also has an Instagram page lewis_stoma_journey where he both raises awareness and supports others living the same or similar experiences.

He said: “Most of them are my friends now I have never met them but they are my friends.

“On the physical side I am fine but on the mental side it is going to take years to get my head around it.

“But I am alive that is the main thing.”