Maddie currently manages a team of 8 nurses, including 7 Nurse Specialists and a Health Care Assistant, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Her work provides care to patients with bowel conditions such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, functional bowel disease and she looks after both in and out patients. Come along with her on this crazy and amazing journey with chronic illness!

Mollie Pearce is best known as one of the finalists on BBC One’s The Traitors Series 2. Since then, she’s appeared on Lorraine and Loose Women (both ITV), and she presented a film for BBC One’s Morning Live to raise awareness of living with a stoma which she’s done for over 3 years. Mollie is also passionate about advocating for those with a limb difference. She’s been featured in a number of publications such as OK! and Hello magazines and has also been a guest on various radio programmes and podcasts such as the BBC Access All podcast.

Following her surgery, Mollie is enjoying being back in the gym which she feels is important for her physical and mental wellbeing. It has helped her to set goals which has enabled her to go from strength to strength. When Mollie isn’t in the gym (or being a faithful), she can be found shopping! She loves fashion which has also played a significant role in her regaining her confidence after her surgery.

Kalpana has had Ulcerative Colitis for 14 years. Unfortunately this never went into remission which led to a lot of different types of medications and an extremely restrictive diet. She underwent unplanned ileostomy surgery at the end of 2019 with many complications ensuing, meaning a long recovery, though with that came the discovery and support of the Birmingham Ileostomy Association and a better quality of life.

Subsequently, Kalpana became a committee member in 2021 supporting with social media, coffee mornings, supplier events and presenting to healthcare professionals and the wider IA community. She is also a trained One2One support volunteer providing support to individuals who are considering or who have recently had surgery. Kalpana has worked extensively in education and training over her career and works full time as a People and Organisational Development Consultant in Higher Education alongside her contributions to the Ileostomy Association.