I was, gosh, with a colostomy bag, swimming, enjoying life . I said, yes, i can. Ive learnt to be confident, not to have any shame. I i can do anything. Cheering gill castle was so severely injured in childbirth in october 2011 that she had to have a Colostomy Operation. Shed suffered a fistula a hole between her rectum and hervagina and a fourth degree tear which couldnt be repaired. So she had to have her bowel diverted out onto her abdomen, creating a permanent stoma. Knowing how hard it was to come to terms with this massive life change, she wanted to let others see it couldnt stop herfrom doing anything. When i first had my stoma surgery, i was told, no, you cant do that to a lot of things. But my attitude is, well, why not . Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Shivers i dont want to dwell all the time on what happened in the past. I also want to show people whats possible moving forward. Screams morning, everybody here we are at ben nevis. And thats really important, to give people
i was, gosh, with a colostomy bag, swimming, enjoying life? i said, yes, i can. i ve learnt to be confident, not to have any shame. i i can do anything. cheering gill castle was so severely injured in childbirth in october 2011 that she had to have a colostomy operation. she d suffered a fistula a hole between her rectum and hervagina and a fourth degree tear which couldn t be repaired. so she had to have her bowel diverted out onto her abdomen, creating a permanent stoma. knowing how hard it was to come to terms with this massive life change, she wanted to let others see it couldn t stop herfrom doing anything. when i first had my stoma surgery, i was told, no, you can t do that to a lot of things. but my attitude is, well, why not? nothing ventured, nothing gained. shivers i don t want to dwell all the time on what happened in the past. i also want to show people what s possible moving forward. screams morning, everybody! here we are at ben nevis. and that s rea
voice-over: this is bbc news. we ll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. woo hoo! yeah! joyous laughter this is kind of like my really in your face way of saying if i can swim the channel, you can go to your local pool. but really, ultimately, my other thing is to show my son that his birth didn t ruin my life. oh, my god. this was the moment she d been working towards for years. in 2023, gill castle became the first person with a stoma to swim the channel. have you got a message for sam? it was all for you, gorgeous boy. and just two months later, she was in kenya, helping women with the same condition but hardly any support to learn to live with their stomas.