Support for Bladder & Bowel Foundation

Incontinence UK is proud to announce its support for the Bladder & Bowel Foundation, a UK charity for people with bladder and bowel control problems.  Over the coming months we will be working closely together to help people with incontinence.The Bladder & Bowel Foundation produce topical relevant information and content from people who have incontinence problems and we wanted to share this inspiring article on Speaking Out About Incontinence. Speaking Out About Incontinence It is the hidden nature of incontinence that can have hugely negative impacts on people’s lives and when studies are published we often wonder what the real figures are.  If most people find it hard to say the word incontinence and flinch when someone says bowel how far are we from being able to get transparent and accurate information on the numbers who suffer from incontinence?  Only with accurate data can planning properly reflect the need for services. How brave, therefore, are the people who “go public” on their incontinence story? Trudi Shepherd, a dancer, felt her career was over when she started suffering from stress incontinence and suffered leakage when she was dancing – she felt embarrassed and awkward with her partner (who also happens to be her husband!) and talks about the nightmare of when she forgot to use a panty liner.  She was doing what many people do – coping but not even using an appropriate incontinence product that would have at least given her more security at that stage. Trudi’s is a success story!  In The Journal of the Bladder and Bowel foundation (Issue 9) Trudi describes how, from asking a friend who was a nurse for advice, she contacted her GP (nearly bottling out of telling) was referred to specialist incontinence services and benefited from injection therapy – something she had not even known existed.   She is now back dancing with confidence, does not need to use incontinence products as the injection therapy has been so successful and at only 51 clearly feels that she has got her life back.  Happily she is Zumba-ing her way into the future. Not everyone gets such a dramatic outcome as Trudi but many people can be helped with a range of services and by utilising the wide range of specialist incontinence products that are specifically designed to perform for incontinence conditions. Thanks are due to Trudi for sharing her story and hopefully inspiring all of us to make the subject of incontinence one that can be discussed, helping fellow sufferers develop the confidence to get the help they need rather than suffering in silence. Article referred to appears in The Journal of The Bladder and Bowel Foundation, Autumn 2012, Issue 9