Holly is thriving (Picture: SWNS)

This inspiring woman is opening up about her painful surgeries – and how she’s now living a happy and full life, with a stoma bag.

Holly Fleet, 28, underwent a proctocolectomy – where the colon and rectum are removed – after battling ulcerative colitis, which is a condition that sees the colon and rectum become inflamed.

The condition left Holly with agonising stomach pains and bleeding, and it’s been known to develop into cancer.

Holly said the procedure to have her rectum sewn shut was ‘excruciating’ as well as ‘mentally hard’, and that it felt like ‘superglue’ down there as it healed.

Holly, a journalist, from Barnet, London, said: ‘It was really painful and sore.

‘I had dissolvable stitches and it felt like superglue.

‘I had dissolvable stitches and it felt like superglue’ (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

What an ordeal (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

‘On a pain scale this surgery is 100 out of 10’ (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

‘Everything went wrong with my recovery’ (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

‘I was vomiting so much and had to have a tube up my nose after the surgery.

‘I was expecting to not be able to sit down for six months but amazingly within a week I was fine.

‘I’m truthful and not hiding that it was one of the world’s most painful surgeries but the pain is short-lived.

‘It could have saved my life so it was worth it.

‘I had low self-esteem about my stoma bag at first but now I’m comfortable showing it off

‘I want to normalise it.’

Holly was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in November 2021 after first experiencing severe stomach pain over a year before in January 2020.

She first put her symptoms down to the stress of starting a new job at a newspaper, and her body getting used to a new night shift eating pattern.

Holly and Callum (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

‘I had low self-esteem about my stoma bag at first’ (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

But her pain only got worse, to the point that she needed to work from bed.

When she saw blood in the toilet for the first time, she went to get tested.

‘I was aware it was a symptom of bowel cancer because of the people I’d interviewed for work,’ she said.

‘So I was very aware that something could really be wrong.

‘It came back and said it was inflamed.’

Holly had a hard time trying to get an appointment with her doctor during lockdown, so used her private medical insurance to get an appointment.

She had a colonoscopy and she was told she had proctitis – an inflammation in the lining of the rectum.

But when Holly’s pain got so severe she was rushed to St Thomas’ Hospital, London, doctors realised she needed a stoma to save her life.

‘I was on the brink of death,’ she said.

‘After the surgery, my body was just shut down.

‘They removed my six-foot colon and fitted me with a stoma.

‘Everything went wrong with my recovery.

‘My stoma bag wasn’t working properly at first and made my stomach would swell so much I looked like I was pregnant with twins.

‘The pain was like I was going into labour.’

‘But now I’m comfortable showing it off’ ((Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

‘It could have saved my life so it was worth it’ (Picture: Holly Fleet / SWNS)

Holly spent two months in hospital before she was able to go home again.

She said her ‘self-esteem was really low’ while she got used to having the stoma, but she slowly got chatting to other people who have them on social media.

She met her partner Callum Campbell, 31, in April 2022, and even though she’d initially be worried about dating with a stoma, he was totally unbothered.

This only served to further boost Holly’s confidence.

But even though her stoma was working by this point, she was still experiencing bleeding from her rectum and ultimately chose to have even more surgery – this time to have the remaining part of her colon removed and her rectum closed.

‘Colitis or Crohn’s can potentially cause cancer so I just didn’t want to risk it,’ she said.

She had the five hour surgery in August 2022.

‘It was awful,” she said.

‘It’s considered one of the world’s most painful surgeries.

‘On a pain scale this surgery is 100 out of 10.’

Since the pain has subsided, however, Holly is thankful she went through it all.

‘Now I don’t have colitis,’ she said.

‘There isn’t actually a cure for it but it only affects the colon and rectum which I’ve now had removed.

‘It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but most days I’m OK.’

Now, Holly is intent on fundraising.

Last month, she walked 39 minutes every day to raise money for Colostomy UK.

More: Lifestyle

‘Did you know that every 39 minutes in the UK someone undergo a life-altering stoma surgery?’ she said.

‘In my case, I had an emergency stoma operation after just a year of battling ulcerative colitis that nearly killed me.

‘Since then, I have had to alter my life to accommodate a new way of needing the toilet.

‘Although it’s been tough at times, I am grateful for the second chance my stoma has provided me with.

‘Many people have never heard about stomas and if they have it’s usually in a negative light.

‘I walked 39 minutes every day for a month to show people that having a stoma is not the end of someone’s life, but just the beginning.’

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‘Having a stoma is not the end of someone’s life, but just the beginning.’