my name is claire. i m one of the stoma nurses from the uk and i m here to see if we can help you and support you with your stoma care. throughout the week, stoma nurse claire from whitley bay has been running a clinic, offering much needed advice to the women. she also trained the nursing staff and helped to sort out the vast supplies of donated stoma bags. so, what are the main differences that you ve seen in the women here, compared to what you see in the uk? i think it was the lack of support and care that they had, right from the whole of theirjourney. some of them can t afford to get to the hospital. they struggle to get here from a distance. they don t have the follow up like we do in the uk. but then, once they re discharged, then that s it. they re left to their own devices, which is where their problems maybe start or their isolation starts or their stigma starts or their fear about living with a stoma, that they then become detached from their family or their group of friend
in eldoret, in the west of kenya, for a week to hand over supplies of bags, help the women learn to manage their stomas and to support each other. but the connection with gill went even deeper. i sort of wanted to point out to them why i thought they were special. and i thought they were so special, i was prepared to swim to another country. so, i sort of shared my channel swim with them, and we had a video up, yeah, and they, all of a sudden, theyjust stood up and started clapping and they were crying. they were so emotional. the power in that moment, you know, i thought my heart was going to burst. you rejust, like, enveloped by love, aren t you? and, erm. well, it will stay with me forever. i never cry. when i was swimming the channel and i was doing all of this training, i kept saying and i kept thinking about these women.
how to manage it. but the group has also been taught about peer support. in that room over thisi last week we ve talked about everything from bowelj movements to relationships. and honestly, those ladies and girls that have been. in our sessions over this last week, i firmly believe that l they re going to go back to their communities. and their villages with - a little bit more confidence. so it s all about women supporting women, basically. yeah, that s what it s all about. i don t want to come here and show these women that there s hope for life with a stoma. i want them to show each other. i want the women to run the support groups. they don t need me to do that for them. there have been a number of success stories for gill. she first met meti online in 2021. meti was too afraid to even wash herself back then because of her stoma. but two years later, she s come to the support group with her very own baby, joy blessing. and just to see the sort of self confidence that meti has now.
MONTCLAIR, NJ Saying that a lot had changed since Old St. Nick left the North Pole last Christmas, a local mall Santa instructed children Monday not to sit on Santa’s colostomy bag. “Ho, ho, ho, Santa is so excited to see all his favorite boys and girls, so long as they are very careful when they come to say hello,”…