Fashion show to celebrate young people with stoma bags
Like many teenage girls, Daisy, 15, loves fashion and experimenting with clothes.
When she was nine, she had surgery after years of suffering with a painful bowel condition called ulcerative colitis, which caused stomach aches, diarrhoea and bleeding.
Following her surgery, Daisy, from Redditch in Worcestershire, now has a stoma - an opening in her stomach where waste can be excreted into a stoma bag.
Daisy is under the care of Birmingham Children's Hospital and will be part of an event to raise awareness of young people who have stomas. "I literally wear bikinis on holiday, I can wear whatever I want," she said.
In March last year, fashion students from South & City College Birmingham partnered with the hospital to design a range of outfits for children with complex mobility issues.
Young patients then modelled the so-called adaptive clothing, including features like magnetic buttons and side zips, to make clothes easier to take on and off, in a fashion show.
'Very fashionable clothes'
Following its success, Andrea Jester, an upper limb plastic surgeon at the hospital who was behind the initiative, is doing it again, but this time the focus is on stomas.
There were a lot of children in the hospital with a stoma bag, she said.
"I could see that they can't wear clothing that other children could wear; high waist, low waist, baggy clothing.
"A lot of children would really love to wear very fashionable clothes, but they can't."
Ms Jester wants to change that and plans another show where young patients who have stomas can model clothing specially made for them or wear outfits where they can proudly display stoma bags.
She is inviting small businesses who specialise in adaptive clothing and all things related to stomas in the UK to exhibit what they do.
Daisy, who will take part in the stoma event, said she was keen to work with students to design an outfit that would show her stoma bag off.
"I'd probably talk to them about like having my bag on show, because obviously I think that's really important, maybe design the bag as well, I mean I've done that previously.
"I put feathers on it for a dance thing that I did for the hospital and sometimes it can be quite fun to like just decorate the bag."
'Want people to know'
Evie-Rose, 12, from Birmingham, had stoma surgery two years ago, after spending most of her primary school years in and out of hospital.
She took part in last year's fashion show.
"I don't want to hide it away, [because] I want people to know, like my friends know, all my family knows.
"But I just want like people that I make friends with in the future to know that I have one."
In just over a week's time, Evie-Rose, Daisy and the other children and young people involved will meet students and start working on outfits for the event, scheduled in May.
Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
