Living and Working With IBD – Literally

In these last few months of 2021, I took on what was both a new opportunity and a challenge. Taking my first step into employment since graduating. Having already been freelancing in the world of digital communications and content creation, I was offered a part-time role doing those very things. What makes this role particularly personal to me is that I’m working for a not-for-profit company helping to improve the life and health of people with IBD through data collection, analysis and research. I am now both living and working with IBD in every sense.

Crohn’s Disease has already had a significant impact on my life. I was worried that having a job that revolves around IBD on a daily basis would feel like too much IBD. Learning to live with a chronic illness is an ever-evolving process and I’m continually having to work hard on my mindset around my health. Although I was excited to expand my horizons and gain new experience, I’ll be honest, a part of me was nervous that I would start to feel like IBD was defining my life more than it already does.

Seeing working with IBD as a positive experience

Although it’s now my job as well as my personal life, once I’d started my new role, I found that I felt far more positive about working with IBD. Why? Previously, my only experiences with IBD had been tough personal ones. Getting diagnosed, hospital admissions, tests, appointments, medication, being very ill at times, the list goes on. Working for a company involved in the clinical side of IBD, which you don’t get to see as a patient, has shown me just how much is being done to improve IBD lives. How tirelessly clinicians work to ensure the best for patients, the amount of research being done and new treatments in development. I’m getting to channel my more negative experiences into positive action and I’m grateful to be even the smallest part of something making an incredible difference.

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