I completely forgot to post about this! 4 months ago, I received a message alerting me that one of my old images had been “lifted” to create a meme… and then posted in “sick f*cks” Facebook group. Don’t even get me started on why a group like that would exist

Anyway, here it is, in all its glory. This image was taken for an article about the many different ways people empty their ostomy bag – people often don’t even realise there’s any other way than the way they’re doing it!

Not so long ago, I may have been fuming. But all I could think was, that’s the risk you take when you make pictures publicly available. It’s been my role, as an advocate in the IBD and stoma space for 11+ years, to shed light on the disease, the surgery, and life with chronic illness.

If it wasn’t my picture, it would have been someone else’s. Potentially someone who would have been a lot more upset and bothered about the small minds of “sick f*cks”.

Does this mean I’ve “made it”, now someone’s made a meme of me?

Who wants to break it to them that there’s no unused hole? That hole was stitched up 7 years ago!