Name
Dan Callaghan
Dan Callaghan
I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in December 2005 and by January it had taken a very strong grip of my and I had surgery on the 26th Jan. I spent 6 weeks in hospital overall and dropped down to 7 stone. The first few months were very difficult to adjust due to the surgery not being planned, therefore not giving me any time to accept what was happening.
After a difficult first year learning how to cope and being scared to try and live a normal life it was time to just get on with things and try and get my life back on track, I applied successfully for a promotion at work and took the decision to make my bag permanent. Two years on from my first surgery I elected to have a total removal due to the risk of a reversal being a failure being quite high. In April 2007 I had my second and final surgery.
It was during my recovery that I met my future wife and adopted son, they were neighbours of my mother so we became close and started a relationship from there. My biggest personal proud moment was adjusting to both life as a permanent ostomate and helping to raise a 2 year old at the same time. Upon full recovery I decided to test myself and see what I could achieve, I started a full gym regime and ju-jitsu classes. After 2 years and a few gradings in the sport I decided I wanted to test myself further so started intense fight classes that included an element of Krav Maga (Israeli Ju-Jitsu) and various other forms of MMA.
In November 2012 I decided to again try and better myself and left the company I had worked at for 12 years and took a step down to move on, my proudest professional achievement came just over a year later when I was promoted to Regional Manager and moved to the midlands, this was shortly followed by the company salesman of the year award.
I still train almost daily and continue to push and test myself as much as my body will allow and tested this further back in June when I competed in a Tough Mudder in aid of Cure Chron’s & Colitis for #IBDSuperheroes.
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