Hi, my name is Helen, and I am fundraising to help my brother Andrew and my sister In Law, Kelly. 6 weeks ago we thought my brother was healthy, never had more than the common cold. He started going to the toilet a lot, thought he maybe has gastroenteritis, this got worse, he went to the hospital and was sent home, he was unable to go into work as he had to be near a toilet at all times. Another week went by, he had stool samples taken at the doctors trying to see doctors was almost impossible on the 28th november he was waiting all day for a doctor to call him, eventually a paramedic called him and due to the fact he couldn't even keep water down, they sent him to the hospital. He was admitted that night and after a few days he had a colonoscopy and they diagnosed him with ulcerative colitis. Not the greatest news but after being on IV antibiotics we thought he would start to recover. He didn't, they tried infusions which didn't work, they tried another infusion a few days later, during this time he was getting weaker and weaker, losing weight rapidly. Eventually they realised this wasnt working and they decided to do a loop ileostomy just over a week ago after being in hospital for 3 weeks, we thought that this was the answer to our prayers and he would start to get better. Towards the end of last week they started talking about letting him out on monday of this week (22nd december), on Monday he was told he wouldn't be going home and they were considering more surgery, this time a permanent ileostomy, then we were told no the surgeons didn't want to operate so close to last surgery and for him to go home and build up his strength for 3 months, we couldn't see how this would happen as he was passing blood constantly, but guess that doctors know better than us. By the end of monday the doctor insisted that the surgeons put him on the operating list for the next day to remove his colon etc. Tuesday we sat there all day waiting and at 3pm the surgeon came in and told us they were running behind and they didn't want to start a big operation at 5pm and he would have surgery Christmas eve. On Christmas eve he finally had his surgery it was a 7 hour procedure, they have now removed everything and he is now recovering. We hope this is the final operation and he will soon be home, but he won't be able to work for months, he has lost around 4 stone in 4 weeks and will be a long road to full recovery and coming to terms with everything. They have an 11 year son, who has been amazing coping without his Dad being at home, but they have a mortgage and added expenses with travelling to the hospital daily and everything that long hospital stays entail. I know everyone is struggling right now, but I just want to try and help them to take some of the pressure off them right now because Andrew is only getting SSP. I had heard about colitis and knew a bit about bowel disease, but I never imagined that the first flare up could lead to this outcome, it has hugely impacted our family. Anything that anyone could donate will be hugely appreciated, and hopefully we will be able to update to see his recovery