Some day my prints will come...

I’m loving the revival of animal prints this season, in all honesty I think they show up every year, but they are key to this years fashion must haves.  

You can’t move in the high street or high end for leopard and other furry animal prints. We’ve swapped our summer polka dots for animal spots. A leopard might not be able to change their spots but you can! ;) 

I wore animal print to my eldest son’s birthday meal at the end of last week, he’s 22 now and all grown up and soon to be a dad himself.  

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Patterns are my hero pieces, and patterned dresses with belts are the pinnacle of success when it comes to my ostomy dressing. I bought this when I was out shopping with my fake daughter, Leonie the other day (She’s Ben’s buddy but I like to borrow her from time to time to balance out the very boy dominated house I live in). She advised me to buy it and who am I to argue with the wisdom of youth. 

Concealed and disguised to perfection. Like I always say, I’m not ashamed of my stoma in any way, shape or form, in fact quite the opposite is true, but when I’m dressed I don’t want it as a focal point. 

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Dress from TK Maxx, Boots from Hobbs, Bag from Tods, Mac from Burberry.  

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From this....to this... Hahahahaha...happy many more birthdays to come Sam my love. Xx

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Dressing well doesn’t have to cost the earth either, I’ll only splash more money on classic pieces, that I know will stand the test of time...or until I accidentally splash bleach on it, which ever comes first. Hahahahaha. There’s plenty of amazing clothes not only on the high street but also in the supermarkets too! 

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Just a small sample of what Tesco have to offer right now! The skirt has been a sell out and I sadly missed the boat on that one, I did ask when it will be back in but they were unsure, so it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled. 

I did however manage to grab the dark floral dress before it sold out, which I absolutely love. The layers of lining and chiffon aid the invisibility of my stoma bag.  

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Dress £26.99 from Tesco, Boots from Russell and Bromley. 

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I worked a full day on Friday for the company I do the social media for. I usually only work for them for an hour a week from my home but last week I worked in store 9-5...very Dolly Parton I know. :) 

It was a long but a fantastic day! We had our very own Neptune Colchester, Macmillan Coffee morning...which was a really great for me as I ate quite a lot of cake, I had a very good cake/work life balance that day, and we raised lots of money for charity too.

I have what I can only describe as noisy stoma phobia, I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I personally have accepted everything about having a stoma ~ apart from the random and often loud wind noise. 

It’s unfeminine, awful and and usually unannounced, and it’s certainly not something I would have done in public pre op.

To be honest, I really thought I would struggle on Friday whilst helping out in store, I did get agitated about it, but it was surprisingly easy to cope with.   

I think the stoma noise seems louder to me because I can feel it and hear it at the same time, my friends often say when I ask them if the heard it that they hadn’t, so unless they’re just being kind I think it is often my own self consciousness that causes my anxiety about it. 

I’m very lucky because for the most part I’m a house wife, and although I don’t work I do socialise a lot. Therefore I have to overcome my own fears about the noise. 

I often place my hand over the stoma, as if to gag the bloody thing hahahahaha, but I feel I can diffuse a lot of the noise this way. I have no idea if I actually do but it makes me feel better and gives me that little bit of self confidence and a little feeling of control.  

I can’t and won’t let anything stop me from enjoying life. It’s too good to waste!  

 So Friday at work was a great success, it really helped my confidence levels. I’m very lucky that my dear friend/boss believes in me enough to ask me to help out when they need it. 

Which brings me nicely to yesterday where I went to London for a meeting at the National Bowel Research Center, with the wonderful Lesley from the Bowel & Cancer Research charity. 

I’m so thrilled to have been asked to be involved with some very exciting upcoming projects. I can’t wait to get started! 

I write my blog as a way of giving back of sorts, I hope, I hope I pass on positivity about stoma-ing and living a good life after cancer.

But being able to help with the charity’s upcoming endeavours is really very special to me, and I’m honoured and grateful to have been asked to assist, more to come on that as it develops. 

What to wear to London? Suitable for a meeting and suitable for a west end shopping trip after (oh come on, you didn’t think I was being totally selfless and philanthropic did you?...you know me well enough to know shopping was surely going to feature somewhere in my trip to London hahahahaha). 

This dress is an utter dream. Loose and fitted in all the right places, which was an absolute godsend after a weekend over over indulgence. Jeans were not going to work, I’d have had a leaky bag before I’d even got out of the drive way. 

A dress and my trusty high denier winter tights with the hole cut out for my stoma bag to poke through is the perfect match for the day I had planned.   

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Dress from French Connection, Tights from Sainsbury’s, Boots from Russell and Bromley.

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It was a highly successful day, I feel like I’m on cloud nine right now. The meeting went very well, it was great to meet Lesley and her team, and yes, the shopping trip was a success too. Hahahahaha 

I think it’s worth mentioning that Bowel & Cancer Research have got a big open day coming up, so it might be of interest to my UK readers. I am gutted that I won’t be able to make this years event but I will be attending future ones. 

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If you do fancy it, and I really think it’s going to be very interesting and very informative contact; 

Lesley@bowelcancerresearch.org  

 *please feel free to like and share Xx