Kia ora koutou. My name is Luke, and I am a 21-year-old Parliamentary Advisor based in Pōneke, Wellington.

When I was admitted to hospital very unwell recently, the last thing I suspected was that I would have an inflammatory bowel disease. However, a week later I had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. For somebody who didn't know much at all about Crohn's and Colitis, this was pretty daunting, and I felt quite isolated and uncertain about what this meant. I had lots of questions around how I would be able to live my life - what changes I needed to make, whether I'd still be able to travel and what this would mean for my professional and social life

However, with support from the doctors and the resources I was given from CCNZ, this gave me peace of mind that there was an incredible support network available, and an organisation dedicated to helping people like me live a normal life. I'm now feeling confident that I'll be able to get back to my life and have resumed my planning to travel to New York next year. This led me to start up a fundraiser for CCNZ for my 22nd birthday, which has now raised $6561 last time I checked and increasing!

I feel honoured to be able to support such a great organisation, and I look forward to seeing what CCNZ is able to do with the funds raised. 

For updates on Luke's fundraising please visit his Give-a-little page.