This courageous lass is telling women to ‘love your SHIT BAGS’ after being publicly humiliated at her local pool.
Jade Hughes, 23, has a chronic bowel condition which forced her into surgery to remove her large bowel and replace it with a pouch, known as a Colostomy bag.
But when she was out swimming a woman pointed at Jade’s bag and said ‘well you know that shouldn’t be on show in a pool? It’s not very nice for young children to see’.
Jade initially shrugged off the ignorant comments from her fellow pool-goer but later took to Instagram to inspire people to love their bodies.
In a triumphant post, Jade wrote:
Luckily for me I love my bag, I love my body! I am in love with my body! It looks after me everyday, it fights infection it keeps my heart racing and my blood pumping!
So whatever anyone may think of me it will never affect me. Ladies love your body!! Fat, thin, scars, stretch marks, SHIT BAGS! Love your fricken body!!!!!
Speaking to The Mirror, Jade, from Devon, said:
The operation has completely changed my life – I used to carry around a change of clothes, a bucket and wet wipes everywhere I went.
But the bag has given me my life back and one of the first things I wanted to do was to get a membership at my local leisure centre so I could start putting some weight on as I’d dropped to five and a half stone.
Since the age of 17 when she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, Jade has spent her life rushing to the bathroom and in agony doubled over on the toilet.
The Mirror reports that Jade had deliberately been going to the pool early as it’s the school holidays and it gets busier in the afternoons, and she believes there were only two children in the ‘baby pool’ with their dad at the time.
She said:
I usually wear high-waisted bottoms but as I had been going everyday my other pairs were in the wash.
Jade had to drop out of college because the condition affected her life so much. Now she can go on a day out and go swimming with no worries.
She married her partner Will last year. Jade told The Mirror how incredibly supportive he has been throughout her six years of suffering.
We’re right behind you Jade!
