Darren Fletcher  Ulcerative Colitis

Darren Fletcher on living with Ulcerative Colitis

Darren Fletcher Illness

Darren Fletcher appearing on Monday night football got the opportunity to talk about his battle with Ulcerative Colitis which nearly ended his career back in 2012. 


"At first, you're a little bit blasé about it. You don't really respect the illness or do enough research or talk about the implications it can have. I thought I could take some tablets and it would go away.

Eventually, I found it out it can get more serious which it did for me. It got to the point where I couldn't control it. We tried a number of things, we tried meditation, alternative medicines and every available thing possible really but nothing worked. We tried not playing for a while to see if the stress of playing on my body was causing it so eventually I had to go down the surgical route which is a last resort, it's make or break.

The success rate isn't high but thankfully, I had a fantastic surgeon and I had a sheer determination that I was going to get back to playing. People told me I wouldn't, but the dream of playing football for me was too big to give up. It's a horrific illness that people don't talk about really because it's to do with going to the toilet but a lot more awareness is being brought on it because of me"

Since going public with his illness Darren has done a huge amount of work highlighting and raising much needed awareness for Ulcerative Colitis and IBD in general. He is now an ambassador for Crohns and Colitis UK and helped launch the fundraising initiative United for Colitis

Darrens Crohns and Colitis Ambassador Page