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| Azmina Verjee bravely showed off her ileostomy bag on the catwalk |
A BRAVE woman strutted down the catwalk with her ileostomy bag on show to prove "bodies aren't supposed to be perfect."
Azmina Verjee, 40, has said she's happy to display the pouch as it has given her a new lease of life.
She wears a bag after being diagnosed with Crohn's, a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines, aged 14.
The NHS cancer research specialist suffered with symptoms, including crippling stomach pains, diarrhoea with blood in it, mouth ulcers, cracked swollen lips and frequent toilet trips, at the tender age of just 10 years old.
Twelve years later, her life was transformed when she underwent an ileostomy, a procedure which sees the small intestine diverted through an opening in the abdomen.
Azmina, of Friern Barnet, north London, said: "We are so bombarded with the image of the perfect body, but bodies aren't supposed to be perfect.
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| Azmina's ileostomy bag helps her control her Crohn's disease |
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| Azmina walked proudly along the catwalk in her underwear |
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| The NHS cancer research specialist is proud to be the face of confidence |
"About one per cent of us look like people on magazine covers."
She added: "Sometimes I wanted to shout about it from the rooftops, because I was so grateful to have my life back.
"Now it's something I don't think about, because it's become part of me.
"I did some modelling for a fashion show organised by Ostomy Lifestyle a few years ago, where all the models had an ileostomy, colostomy or were disabled."
In her teens, her condition saw Azmina making up to twenty trips to the toilet every day, forcing the straight A student to revise for exams in the bathroom.
"There was a period at school when I was spending more time in the toilets than the classroom," she recalled.
"Now I have an ileostomy bag, those days are over, thankfully."
Azmina hasn't let the ileostomy knock her confidence or ruin her love life.
She said: "I don't think it's made a difference with relationships. I have a partner who I live with.
"I don't think anybody really cares how a person goes to the toilet and if a man did have a bad reaction to it, he wouldn't be the right person for me."
The Crohn's sufferer is sharing her story as part of Gut Week, running from 31st August to 6th September and forming part of the Love Your Gut campaign.
Reflecting on her battle with the debilitating disease, she said the worst point was just before having the ileostomy fitted, when surgery went wrong and left her with sore open wounds.
It took a year for the complication to be fixed, during which time she was completely dependent on her parents and feared she would never recover.
Happily, she has now swapped her hospital gown for work clothes and her dream "of living a normal life" has come true.
For details about the campaign, visit www.loveyourgut.com
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