Going from bad to worse
At the age of 15, Hilde was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease – a type of inflammatory bowel disease. In the first years, Hilde was able to treat her condition with medication. However, eventually medication was no longer working for Hilde and her situation left her no other choice than ostomy surgery.
A “second chance at life”
Being in your 20’s can be challenging enough, so needing an ostomy on top of all the other things that cause concern at this age, can be frightening and sound even harder. However, for Hilde an ostomy surgery was not a turn for the worse – it was an opportunity for a “2nd life”:
It was decided that I needed surgery because the medical treatment just didn’t work for me. But to me, considering the impact Crohn’s disease had on my life, having an ostomy was a major gift. It was literally a life saver and a change for the better.
After surgery, Hilde had an initial period of adjustment to her ostomy. Although Hilde has never been cycling at a professional level, she took up cycling after starting to work nearby and over time, it became part of her everyday life:
In Belgium, everyone cycles a little bit. I cycle to work - it’s 7 km. so it’s not too far. And two years ago, I had a vacation on the bicycle with my partner. It’s a slow way of travelling, which is nice.
Biking 1370 km. with an ostomy
In 2018, Hilde celebrated 25 years with her ostomy. Hilde was so grateful about her second chance at life that she decided to do a life reaffirming event – a 1370km cycling-trip from Belgium along the North Sea up to Denmark in 19 days.
It was a sort of gratitude that led me to this idea. Biking is something that came to my mind, as I wanted to do something special on my own to celebrate 25 years of good health, which has given me the chance to live a normal life.
When Hilde is not spending time on her bike, she works in a service centre for elderly or spends time at home with her husband Dominique and her two children aged 21 and 23.
