A woman who almost died after childhood bullies stamped on her stoma is hoping to make fitness history.
Lindsay Bowers, 41, from Southampton, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of nine. She was bullied at school for needing a stoma and suffered a life-threatening attack on a bus that left her in intensive care with a damaged stoma, broken jaw and cracked ribs.
She went on to become the first child in the UK to undergo J-pouch surgery – a pioneering procedure that gave her 20 years without a stoma bag until the J-pouch failed in 2013 and she experienced a painful decade of ill-health.
Lindsay now provides coaching for others with stoma bags with the support of her husband, Tyronne, 45, and a group of friends at her gym, which she calls The Breakfast Club.
She is in training to become the first person with a stoma to compete in Spartan DEKA FIT Europe – a HYROX-style fitness challenge involving 11 x 500m runs, interspersed with functional fitness movement stations like box overs, RAM burpees, sled pushes and medicine ball sit-ups.
“(My childhood bullies) beat me up, stamped on my stoma so much that I nearly died,” she said.
“I’m proud to represent hidden disabilities. People don’t always see what you’re dealing with – but if I can show one person what’s possible, then that’s enough.”
Lindsay first became unwell at eight after experiencing severe stomach pain, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers, rectal bleeding and severe weight loss, and was eventually diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age nine.
After having her large bowel removed, she was fitted with a stoma, but faced relentless bullying – due to time off school and being exempt from PE, which she says marked her as “different” to other children.
Lindsay was attacked on a bus by a girl her age and two older boys.
Lindsay’s older sister Lucy had died of croup at nine months old, so the trauma of nearly losing another daughter was immense for her parents, with the family not offered any mental health support at the time.
US specialist Dr Clark, who was visiting the specialist bowel hospital St Mark’s in London, came to Southampton to perform the UK’s first J-pouch surgery on a child, with Lindsay’s procedure filmed and used as a medical teaching tool.
J-pouch surgery can reverse a stoma by connecting the newly created pouch (made from the small intestine) to the anus, allowing waste to pass through the body naturally again instead of into a stoma bag. Lindsay’s remission lasted an “amazing” 20 years.
She gave birth to her daughter Macey, now 23, aged 18 and channelled her own traumatic childhood experience into supporting children with troubled backgrounds through her professional career.
But in 2013, Lindsay’s J-pouch failed. She needed two enemas twice a day, waking up hours early to manage her condition before work – a process that was exhausting and socially isolating, due to fear of accidents.
In 2019, Lindsay developed further symptoms including hair loss, blurred vision and severe stomach pain.
She was diagnosed with a fistula and scans unearthed a fibroid lump attached to her J-pouch.
In October 2022, she underwent a 12-hour surgery involving three procedures, performed by two surgeons: a full hysterectomy, permanent ileostomy and proctectomy.
Returning to life with a stoma came with fears, but Lindsay’s husband Tyronne, who she met at a Jumpin’ Jax night out in Southampton as a teenager, reassured her.
“He was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m here’,” she said.
“Which I think is something a lot of people worry about – how their connection will be with their partner afterwards.”
Tyronne even surprised her with a tattoo of a stoma bag as a gesture of solidarity.
She said: “I was actually furious the day he got it, because I was due to see my surgeon for the first time since my operation, and the tattoo artist had said, ‘Oh, I’ve got an early slot. Do you want it?’ So he went to that, and he was like, ‘I can’t tell you what it is, it’s a secret.’
“I was really angry, saying ‘Why are you not coming to my appointment?’, but then he came home with the stoma tattoo which is of course is a lovely gesture.”
Lindsay wants to inspire other stoma patients.
“There’s nothing positive in the hospital discharge literature that says life can be normal: that you can have sex with your partner, go for brunch with your girls, have cocktails, go to the gym,” she said.
“It takes time but you can feel happy and healthy again.”
Determined to show life with a stoma can be full and active, Lindsay began researching feats never attempted by someone with a stoma and discovered Spartan DEKA – which she auditioned to take part in as an ambassador for invisible disabilities like hers.
“A lot of my friends asked, ‘Are you drunk? Are you sure you want to do this?’” she said. “But I was like, no – I’m doing it.”
Lindsay began training with Matt Vanmol and Mesha Moinirad, who she now also works alongside helping clients work on their confidence and fitness post-stoma.
Lindsay shares her daily life and training on Instagram, as well as her story through Crohn’s & Colitis UK, hoping to inspire others.
“I wanted to be able to say to other people with stomas: you can do this – and this is what healthy feels like,” Lindsay said.
