Scotland needs to get better at earlier diagnosis of bowel disease
A leading charity is making a plea for more investment into services and awareness campaigns to help people with bowel disease be diagnosed earlier - Our Reporter has his own personal story
Last updated 27th Sep 2022
The charity Crohn's & Colitis UK is this morning (August 27th) making a plea for more focus in Scotland on diagnosing bowel disease earlier.
More than 45,000 people in the country have either Crohn's disease or Colitis, and that number continues to grow - Scotland has one of the highest rates of the condition in the world.
Our Senior Reporter Lewis Michie has his own personal experience of the impact of Crohn's, through his Mum.
Gill's story
I started looking into this story because of my Mum. She had Crohn's disease, and it took her nearly a decade to eventually be diagnosed.
Once she finally had answers as to what her condition was she was able to get proper treatment. But by that time her condition was getting worse and worse.
More than 10 years followed of being in and out of hospital, constant pain, and worry about if she'd ever get better.
Last year at just 52 she died as a result of other conditions caused directly by Crohn's.
Gill Thomson was a Daughter, a Sister, a Wife, a Mother and a Grandmother, robbed of what she felt would be the best years of her life by a horrible disease.
The issues
Researching this story has revealed that unfortunately my Mum's case was not uncommon, many people are still struggling for years to be diagnosed, being told they have other conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The charity Crohn's & Colitis UK want to see this tackled by more money being invested into services, and more awareness about the condition - as well as Colitis, which is similar - being raised in the public.
Sarah Sleet is the charity's Chief Executive, she told me:
"Across the UK, there are over 500,000 people who have been diagnosed with the conditions about 200,000 with Crohn's disease. And in Scotland, what that means is 45,000 People with these conditions, so it's a lot and it's growing, because it's a lifelong condition, there's no cure."
Around a quarter of the people diagnosed with these conditions are under the age of 30 - that's despite the misconception they are more often issues found among older people.
They are life-long conditions, meaning constant treatment and care and changing situations.
On troubles getting diagnosed, Sarah said:
"Something like one in four people take more than a year to get diagnosed. That's a big problem. Because the longer that you take to get diagnosed, the more likely it is that you have serious complications or symptoms that are really difficult to get on top of.
"So it's a big issue today."
Making improvements
I asked Sarah what needs to happen next in Scotland, and how to improve things.
She told me:
"I think it means having a concerted plan for funding appropriately and for getting the health care professionals in the right place, delivering the right care.
"There are some excellent, excellent examples in Scotland of really good services. But there are other services which unfortunately are are missing the target. Sometimes that's about not having the staff that they need in place. And sometimes it's about resources being prioritised elsewhere.
"And I think what we need to make the case that this is a serious, lifelong condition. That can is certainly life changing for people and can be life threatening.
"Too often it goes under the radar in terms of the seriousness of it, and trying to get people seen quickly and treated quickly so that their condition doesn't deteriorate and resulting long term impact on them.
"But also, you know, the costs of treating those conditions when they're uncontrolled, and later on, are not recognised in the same way that perhaps they are for other conditions. And we need to get that message over."
You can read about the symptoms of Crohn's Disease here.