‘The Traitors’ star Mollie Pearce is urging people to banish the ‘taboo around poo’ as she fronts a new campaign about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
IBD is an umbrella term for conditions that cause severe stomach pain and diarrhoea, the most well-known of which are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Mollie, 22, has had ulcerative colitis since she was 11 and is keen to help others suffering from symptoms she says many are embarrassed to talk about.
As part of this she is fronting a new campaign called Where’s Crohn’s & Colitis which invites people to participate in an online game to learn more about the ‘invisible condition’ of IBD.
‘Living with a condition such as ulcerative colitis comes with so many challenges — from sometimes not being able to leave the house to missing out on social occasions with friends,’ she said.
Mollie was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 11 and often suffered anxiety and panic attacks about needing the loo in her teens. Here she is pictured at the Make-A-Wish Ball held at the Savoy Hotel in London
She eventually got a stoma, an opening that connects the bowel to a surgically created hole in on the surface of the waist that attaches to bag. She credits the operation with giving her a new sense of security and banishing her anxiety about going out
She hoped the new Where’s Crohn’s & Colitis campaign, which takes inspiration from the iconic ‘Where’s Wally’ series, would provide a fun new way for people to engage and learn about the topic
Mollie is not alone, with an estimated one in every 277 Brits having been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
The condition causes small lesions to develop on the colon’s lining which can bleed and become infected.
Sufferers can experience symptoms like blood in the stool and suddenly needing to go to the toilet.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mollie recalled how challenging secondary school was while experiencing symptoms and how it led the then 15-year-old to have panic attacks about being able to find a toilet.
‘You don’t really want to be soiling yourself at any time, let alone secondary school,’ she said.
This anxiety carried through to many aspects of her life and it wasn’t until she got a stoma at the age of 18 that she said she finally managed to overcome it.
‘It took me a while to get used to the bag obviously but I knew I wasn’t going to have an accident and the anxiety doesn’t affect me any more,’ she said.
A stoma is a surgically-created opening on the surface of the abdomen that connects to the bowel and diverts the flow faeces or urine into a special bag that attaches to it at the waist.
They are typically only recommended for severe cases of ulcerative colitis that don’t respond to medication but give those patients, like Mollie, a renewed sense of independence and security.
Mollie added that she hoped the campaign would help bring awareness to the IBD conditions and help banish the taboo people hold about discussing toilet habits with their doctor.
‘People who are suffering with symptoms sometimes aren’t going to the doctor’s because they feel embarrassed,’ she said.
‘I want to try change that and make sure no one is feeling embarrassed when it comes to their UC.’
‘The Traitors’ star Mollie Pearce became a household name during the show and now hopes to raise awareness about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Mollie has previously posed proudly with her stoma bag in photo-shoots in a bid to dispel stigma surrounding them
Ulcerative colitis runs in Mollie’s family, with her father also having the condition.
She said this made it particularly ‘frustrating’ for her parents when she first experienced symptoms as it still took them eight moths to get a diagnosis.
‘My first symptom was blood in my stools, just a little bit,’ she said.
‘I remember calling my mum in thinking I had started my period.
‘They started getting worse from there, I was getting more blood, my stools became a lot more runnier, I was going to the toilet a lot more frequently, then I started to lose control of my bowels completely.’
Mollie said she understood that medics needed to rule out the many other conditions that ulcerative colitis symptoms could indicate, with doctors at one point dismissing her problems as an infection, but said it was hard for her parents.
‘It was difficult, my dad has colitis so we knew what it was,’ she said,
‘My mum was so adamant and she used to go in there and scream and shout “you’re not doing anything, she’s getting worse”’.
She hoped the new Where’s Crohn’s & Colitis campaign, which takes inspiration from the iconic ‘Where’s Wally’ series, would provide a fun new way for people to engage and learn about the topic.
‘What’s really nice about the game is that it’s not too serious,’ she said.
‘You’re not reading pages and pages of all this horrible information that’s going to overwhelm you. It’s really great for that.
‘When I was 11, that game would have been perfect for me, because I would have understood it.’
Mollie also hoped people would take what they learn from the campaign not only for themselves but potentially family of friends who might have IBD symptoms.
‘Everyone poos, everyone goes to the toilet, it’s not something to be ashamed of we all do it,’ she said.
‘There is no need to feel embarrassed about something that every single person does.
‘Get out there and go to your GP and be honest with them.’
People can take part in the Where’s Crohn’s & Colitis, developed by the the South Korea-based biopharmaceutical company Celltrion, at this link.
Crohn’s disease, the other most commonly known IBD, is a condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed.
It causes similar symptoms to UC and, like that condition, experts are still trying to uncover what triggers it.
Both Crohn’s and UC can be tricky to diagnose as they can cause symptoms that can be triggered by other health conditions.
Cases are typically confirmed using tiny flexible cameras that are inserted into the rectum to examine colon and bowel.