Inflammatory, bowel and disease are no longer dirty words. Just about everyone knows someone who has bowel or digestion problems, which are painful and often embarrassing, no matter how minor. Nearly 300 people in Chester are coping with serious, debilitating and often misunderstood conditions. JESSICA SHAUGHNESSY reports.

A WEEK after the birth of her son, Ciaran, Jane Hughes began to suffer stomach cramps which were worse than labour.

Within three weeks, she had lost three stone and was rushing to the toilet up to 15 times a day.

After a year of almost constant pain and physical exhaustion, she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

Jane, 33, of Stocks Avenue, Boughton, said: 'I was so tired all the time and my face looked very thin. People would tell me that I should eat, but I was eating.

'I wasn't retaining any nutrients or goodness so I had to stop breast-feeding and then clumps of my hair started falling out.

'But because I wasn't showing all the classic symptoms, they didn't think it was Crohn's disease.'

Jane thinks she may have had the condition for up to 10 years.

She explained: 'I would have bouts of stomach cramps and diarrhoea and I would often go to the doctors about it.

'But by the time I got appointments to see a specialist, it would have gone and I would be all right for a while.

'Then when it came back, the whole process would start again. Eventually, I just got sick of going and didn't bother.

'Doctors said while I was pregnant, my body would have been geared up to that. But after giving birth, the upheaval and hormones made the disease flare up.'

Twice during those ten years, Jane was taken into hospital with suspected appendicitis.

'The pain was right near the appendix,' she said. 'But doctors couldn't figure it out. They kept keeping me in to carry out more tests.'

When Jane was diagnosed, doctors discovered a section of her small intestine, near her appendix, was diseased.

After putting her on medication to manage her condition, doctors told Jane she should have surgery.

In May, she went into the Countess of Chester Hospital to have a right helicolectomy, an operation to remove 11 inches of her bowel.

She said: 'Occasionally, surgery can cure it, but a lot of the time it comes back in a different place.

'I don't feel like it has gone. I still get pains but, instead of every day, it's probably about three days in every week.

'Doctors have said to wait six months to let everything settle down. They think I may have irritable bowel syndrome.'

Jane says she has concerns about Ciaran - the disease is hereditary.

She said: 'I am the first in my family to have this but I am still worried I have passed it on to him.

'That's why I wouldn't let him have the MMR jab. All the rumours about MMR causing digestion and bowel problems worried me.

'I didn't want to do anything to make things worse for him. He might still have problems when he is older, but at least I will know it is not because of MMR.'

But for now, Jane is concentrating on not letting her condition rule her life.

She said: 'When it was at its worst, it was impossible to go out in my car in case I would urgently need the toilet.

'I couldn't even go into the city centre. People in cafes wouldn't be too sympathetic if I asked if I could use their loo.

'But I am determined to carry on with things. Apart from when I had my operation, I have never had time off work because of it, which means that I am not very sympathetic when other people stay off work with sickness and diarrhoea.'