Heartbeat: Finch coach trip helps bowel condition patients take flight

June 20, 2019

It’s always nice to get out and about – now imagine if you couldn’t take a trip to the out of fear and embarrassment at the prospect of your body betraying you. For some patients it is a very real reality, but thanks to the FINCH group (faecal incontinence and constipation healthcare), assistance to those suffering from potentially life–altering bowel conditions is available.

It can be a tricky subject to talk about, as Jodie Smith, Bowel Function CNS at FINCH explains: “We know that bowels are a taboo subject and that bowel complaints can lead to social isolation, but the feedback demonstrates that even when an individual has regained control, the social isolation can persist.”

To help combat this, earlier this year at one of their quarterly support meetings the FINCH group proposed pushing social boundaries more significantly, raising the idea of a specially tailored coach trip to the Cotswolds for the simple pleasure of going ‘somewhere different’. The response from patients was a definite yes.

One such patient was 79–year–old Hazel Bury, who suffers from anterior resection syndrome following surgery for bowel cancer: “The idea was a big cheer up for us all; people who don’t normally get out and socialise. It gives us a bit more freedom, to have a day out or a few hours where we feel we’re in control – instead of the complaints being in control of us.”

FINCH, with sponsorship assistance from delivery company Respond worked to make it happen, allowing all those attending on a highly enjoyable trip the Cotswolds – one even rain could not dampen. Hazel laughs: “That day it poured with rain but it didn’t matter. It was a very interesting area and we wandered and wandered and I’m afraid was a bit late back for the coach because we wandered a bit too much!”

Further outings are now a possibility for the patients as it has opened back up a door thought closed to many.

Jodie adds: “The benefit of a patient support group is that patients can share experiences, give advice, and provide emotional support as they are speaking to others in a similar situation to themselves. These patients may not have anyone else to talk to, and even if they did it can be most beneficial to speak to someone outside their immediate circle.

From a patient support group friendships can be formed and this relief from isolation is gained.

“That was the whole aim. To help encourage patients to go out, live their life and not let their bowels stop them doing what they want to do.”