Bethany Townsend's Inspiring Colostomy Bag Bikini Journey

Tried to paste entire article which includes a photo of her in her bikini and video of explaining why she exposed herself. Google her name and you can view entire article done July 2022

Dare to bare: Living with a colostomy bag
Monday 7 July 3:30pm
Crohn's sufferer Bethany Townsend, 23, became an overnight internet sensation after an image she posted of herself in a bikini with a colostomy bag scored more than eleven million views on social network sites.

After suffering from Crohn's disease for nearly two decades, Bethany hopes to inspire other people living with Crohn's, and raise awareness for the condition.

Bethany tells us why she dared to bare...

Yep, that was quite a while ago now, but she's awesome and I'm still jealous of her flat stomach #&#@*"

Absolutely inspirational!  Her story is well worth reading.

Best wishes

Bill

I wish I was that brave.

I agree! She is such an inspiration. It took me two years to get up the courage to swim again, something I love and always did a lot of. Even then, I had to find a seamstress who would modify my swimsuit to disguise my lop-sided stomach. One benefit of what she has done, for all of us ostomates, is to start to normalize ostomies to the general public. I'm often surprised to find out how many people don't even know what an ostomy is.

Terry

Living with Your Ostomy | Hollister

Great to hear you're back to swimming. It's a big part of my life too.
Don't wear an outside appliance since 1980. Have a Kock pouch now. But when I did have an outside bag, I'd swim and water ski. Bought bathing suits that kind of hid it. It wasn't easy as a young teenager when my friends wore bikinis.
Big picture...Life is good.
Take care, Sharon

Thanks Sharon, yes, it feels absolutely wonderful to be back in the pool. One of my biggest problems is finding a polyester swimsuit (that will tolerate chlorine water) that has a style that will disguise my belly area. It's easy to find regular swimsuits with different cosmetic designs that would do the trick nicely, but they would fall apart in the chlorine water in no time. The seamstress I found did a wonderful job of using my existing polyester swimsuit and adding a pretty flourish of material to the front. It looks like it was made that way. I was an ocean swimmer most of my life, but the older I get, the less tolerant I am of cold water. I'm a complete wimp these days. I should have been born closer to the equator!

Cheers,

Terry

P.S. I used to water ski too, wow, such a rush, and something I miss!

Yes indeed... it's very liberating to let it all hang out. I used to wear a T-shirt until I saw myself in wet swim trunks!! Scary Sea Monster came to mind right away. That's when I stopped trying to disguise or hide the bag at the beach... I just don't care what anyone thinks! I've waterskied and ridden the rubber ring behind a boat... no problem. I never worked up the courage to wear my Speedo in public, but after some work at the gym, a bit of flab creeping up on me!!! I might actually do it this summer when back in California.

Unfortunately, the baggie does not look quite so pristine if you eat anything... but who the hell cares... right!!!

E

Right! LOL

A little trick if in the ocean. First off, you need to be able to float effortlessly to do this. Swim away from people as much as possible and when out of sight, open the Velcro closure and hold upright! Very important... let the air out of the bag, just the air!!! And you don't even have to leave your watery haven.

Only the air!!! Lol E

I placed ostomy information on my Facebook page several times and yet not one of my 228 friends replied.  Not until it's them, right?  Well, we keep trying.