A shop assistant has defied bullies who made fun of her colostomy bag after a problem with her intestine left her looking PREGNANT.
Donna Burns, 29, has taken a defiant social media stance again bullies who poked fun at her for wearing a Colostomy, or Stoma, bag.
Donna, who nicknames her bag ‘Betty Poop’, decided to under-go the life-changing op after she was left looking bloated.
She now wants to stand up for people who use the bags and should not be something to be ashamed of as the operation has given her a new lease of life.
Donna, who lives in Grimsby, North East Lincs., said: “People would come up to me and say – are you pregnant and it would knock my confidence.
“One time I had my hands inside the pockets of my hoodie and I could feel the bag against my stomach.
“Then this woman, who I don’t want to name, was walking with me and she said that ‘I won’t talk out of my arse – I’ll talk out my stomach’.
“I wanted to say something and lash back at her, but I didn’t.
“People also call it a poop sack and other names for it.
“But, I think that is one of the main reasons why I do want to speak out – because people don’t understand what us bag users go through.
“I am quite a shy person and sometimes lack confidence – but for this I just thought why not.”
Primark store assistant Donna underwent surgery to have a colostomy pouch installed in November last year.
The surgery attached an opening in her skin or ‘stoma’ to her colon, and now waste leaves her body through a bag attached to her stomach.
Donna said the procedure has given her a new lease on life – and saved her from the pain and discomfort she had been living with since birth.
She added: “I refer to my stoma as Betty (Betty Poop) this is because for alot of people it helps them come to terms with dealing with surgery.
“Nobody should ever feel like they need to hide away just because they have a stoma bag.”
Donna had bowel surgery when she was a baby but found out from a consultant on October 10 last year that she would require the surgery to fix bowel complications -which she has had since birth.
A colostomy is a surgical procedure which brings one end of the large intestine out throughout the abdominal wall.
One end of the colon is diverted through an incision into the abdominal wall to create a ‘stoma’ which is attached to a bag that then collects waste from the body.
She said: “I used to need to wear baggy clothes to hid my ‘bumb’ and friends did used to say I looked pregnant as a joke – which I didn’t so much, it was more people stopping me in the street.
“It was just bloating though – it was really painful.”
Donna is now setting her sights on fundraising by taking part in a 10k run for the Health Tree Foundation’s Rear into Gear appeal.
The cash raised it hoped at raising £200K to purchase two new equipment at Diana, Princess of Wales hospital where she had her treatment.
