Telling your story can be really helpful for others, and give useful insights to everyone about what living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is really like for children and young people, and their families.
You can choose if you want to be identified with your story, but if you would like to tell your story anonymously, it can still be useful because it is your experience as a real person affected by IBD. If you would like to remain anonymous, tick the box below to be anonymous (we will know who you are but we won't use your name).
You may wish to tell your story to camera as a video. We’ve suggested some questions below to help you think about what you may wish to include, but what is most important is that you tell the story you want to tell, and that you write about the things that matter most to you. Your story is yours and we will get great insights from whatever you tell, and anything unusual, memorable or important to you is always helpful.
If you video yourself telling your story (on a smartphone is fine, a camera even better), we can edit it for different things we might use it for. It’s best if you are well lit and the microphone works so we can hear you clearly. If you have chosen to film yourself, as video files can be too large for email servers, we suggest you may want to use one of these sites and then email us on stories@cicra.org.
Always keep your copy until we confirm we have received your file and it works.
If you are a child or young person with IBD, you may wish to tell us about:
- When you were diagnosed and what happened leading up to that point, when did you notice something was wrong? How did you feel when you were told your diagnosis?
- How has your life changed as a result of IBD before or after diagnosis?
- What has your experience been of medical care?
- How do you feel about having IBD?
- Talk about your friendships and family relationships since having IBD.
- What things about IBD make life difficult and in what way is it difficult?
- Talk about positive things that have happened, or people you have met.
- What things have been really helpful for you?
- If you were to go back in time, what advice would you give yourself before you were diagnosed?
- Anything you would really want people to know about what it’s like to be a young person with IBD?
If you are a parent or relative or friend of a child or young person with IBD:
- Talk about what happened before diagnosis, when did you first think something was wrong?
- How did you feel once it was diagnosed, and how did you feel when you were told about IBD?
- What has your experience been of medical care?
- How do you feel about IBD and what impact has it had on your family or friendship?
- What things have been really helpful for you?
- Talk about positive things that have happened, or people you have met, linked to IBD.
- What advice would you give yourself before any of this happened, what would it have helped you to know?
- Anything you would really want people to know about what it is like to have a child affected by IBD?
You can also let us know if you are interested in becoming a CICRA media volunteer