Jake always struggled with going to the toilet and having accidents. He was often in hospital due to severe constipation – sometimes for up to two months. He missed school, seeing his friends, and playing football, which he loves. In school, he would sometimes have soiling accidents through no fault of his own. He would be too embarrassed to tell teachers.

Aged 10, doctors explained that Jake would need to have an ACE stoma formed. He stayed in hospital over Christmas for the operation. Unfortunately, even after his stoma was formed he still became regularly impacted and had to be hospitalised.

The whole experience was very distressing for Jake and his family. Jake's mum Danielle was especially affected, fearing that this was all her fault somehow. While Jake was in hospital, she heard about ERIC through another parent. She rang our Helpline and received advice and reassurance. "It really helped. I realised we were not alone in this," she said.

Eventually, tests concluded that Jake had an abnormal bowel and an ileostomy would be best: an operation to bring part of his small bowel through an opening in his tummy to form a stoma. Jake had ileostomy surgery aged 11. ERIC gave the family advice about stomas throughout it all.

Jake’s surgery was hard and having an ileostomy took some adjustment. But it was a success and now he spends less time in hospital, and is able to play football, go out with friends and go to school more.

Two months after his surgery, Jake walked up Mount Snowdon and raised over £2,000 for ERIC. He is also an ERIC Young Champion, raising awareness of bowel and bladder issues, and over summer he met former England Rugby Captain Lewis Moody to film a special video about his condition for ERIC.

"We are so thankful to ERIC for the advice we received throughout our journey. Without ERIC, we'd have been so lost and confused."