As this week is Volunteer’s Week, we spoke to Emma Howell, our Volunteers Manager. Emma, who has been with the charity since March 2019, is responsible for recruiting, supporting, and training volunteers. Colostomy UK has nearly 100 volunteers and she said the best part of her role is getting to know them and spending time with them!

With volunteers being so integral to everything we do, we are saying a HUGE THANK YOU to our volunteers during Volunteers Week. Colostomy UK was founded on the outcome of study that showed peer-to-peer experience-based support is of great benefit to people with stomas and we have developed as a volunteer-centred charity.

Step Up for Stoma’s is a new initiative from Colostomy UK and we’re inviting you to walk, run, jog, skip, roll, crawl or hop 160,000 steps in the month of September to help you get more active, and to raise funds to help us better support ostomates and those who care for them.

Saturday 15th May is Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Awareness Day. A spinal cord injury may interrupt communication between the nerves in the spinal cord that control bladder and bowel function and the brain, causing incontinence*. Stoma surgery can drastically improve quality of life as Dave Thraves explains.

We are all forever telling each other to ‘take care’ but when was the last time you looked after yourself? Indeed, what does that even mean? During Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re pleased to share some of what we’ve learned at Colostomy UK along the way… and the different ‘pieces of the puzzle’ that can help you to best look after yourself.

In this sponsored feature from CUI Wear, Sarah Smith talks about raising awareness of ostomy’s while Ollie Rowley tells us about his return to being active