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Spotlight Story Program: Meet Abbie Stapleton

In honor of Endometriosis Awareness Month, we are honored to have one of our GBL Ambassadors from England, Abbie Stapleton, sharing her health journey and some major life tips that will be fueling you to bring kindness into your life. Founder of the blog and Instagram platform, Cheerfully Live, Abbie has fused her personal experience going through the long diagnosis process with her joyful content that’s uniquely styled to provide relatable advice with empowering young adults in this chronic illness community. You will not only learn a lot about Abbie’s diagnosis journey with Endometriosis as a teen dealing with medical professionals not taking her symptoms seriously, but you will also learn how Abbie has preserved and uses her experiences to motivate in this empowered community of wonderful women around the world!  Now living with other diagnoses like Fibromyalgia and Costochondritis and Interstitial Cystitis, Abbie’s wide range of life experience lets her connect with many, and her platform truly is unique and joyful all her own.

Hi I’m Abbie, the founder of the Cheerfully Live blog and Instagram.

When I was 14, I experienced my first episode of excruciating pain, little did I know that I would have debilitating pain for the rest of my life. Every month, my periods would come and I would be bed-bound, unable to walk, fainting, with nothing working to ease my pain. I was back and forth seeing healthcare professionals month after month.

Every time I was told nothing was wrong.

My tests would come back clear and I was always dismissed as being the “unlucky one”, told I had a “low pain threshold” and that it was “part of being a woman”. I was even once asked by a doctor “are you sure you are not over-exaggerating?”. It wasn’t until my pain became chronic in December 2018, that Endometriosis started being investigated. I was sent from urology at first as they thought I was having urine and kidney infections that just wouldn’t clear, but then they realised my pain was more likely related to Endometriosis.

But when I saw a gynecologist, I was told that I could “never have severe Endometriosis because I was too young”. I pushed for an MRI to rule that out and to her surprise, my scans showed severe, deep-infiltrating Endometriosis. The relief I received after I got my results was huge! After years of gaslighting from healthcare professionals and feeling like the pain was all in my head, I realised my pain was real!

I was immediately referred to an Endometriosis specialist who tried me on the mini pill for 6 months, but unfortunately my pain only got worse. I finally had Endometriosis excision surgery with an Endometriosis specialist in December 2020, a year after being put on the waiting list. They found Endometriosis all over my uterus, left ovary, my bowel, bladder and both my kidney ureters.

During all of this I was also diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Costochondritis and during my Endometriosis surgery I had a cystoscopy which revealed my bladder was chronically inflamed and that I had Interstitial Cystitis (also known as Bladder Pain Syndrome). Thankfully I’m now on the road to recovery and feeling some relief from my excision surgery, however I’m also now undergoing investigations for possible Fowler’s Syndrome and PoTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).

When I was being investigated for Endometriosis, I needed a place where I could speak to others who were also going through the same thing, it was an incredibly challenging time, not only on my physical health but also my mental health. So that’s when I set up my blog and Instagram Cheerfully Live. I used my platform to document my journey, chat to others who were going through the same as me and share any advice which had helped me whilst going through the diagnosis process.

I’m so thankful for this community and my little platform – I’ve not only been able to support so many women in getting an Endometriosis diagnosis, I’ve encouraged them throughout their journey and shared helpful advice. I’ve also found comfort through everyone’s kind words and knowledge.

I’ve learnt so much about many different chronic illnesses and how best to support others, which has been invaluable!

There’s been so many amazing opportunities since starting Cheerfully Live such as becoming a GBL for InvisiYouth, speaking on the radio to share my story and collaborating with many amazing brands, charities and companies on raising further awareness for chronic illness!

And lastly, living with Endometriosis or any chronic illness is hard and so I wanted to share with you a few top tips that I’ve learnt along the way that have helped me cope living with my illnesses, both when advocating for yourself in medical settings and just in general life:

  1. The biggest piece of advice I could give is to get yourself invested into the chronic illness community! There is such a wonderful presence online of people sharing the realities of living with chronic illnesses on Instagram, but Facebook is also amazing for joining different groups that share lots of helpful advice. Also, Endometriosis UK offers face-to-face support groups, as well as lots of accurate information, so I’d definitely recommend their website, it’s a great resource.
  2. Research and really understand your condition, so that you are best able to advocate for yourself.
  3. Be honest and open with those you trust around you. Allow people to really see what it’s like living with your chronic illness, let people in, allow them to help and support you!
  4. If you are struggling to get healthcare professionals to listen or feel like you aren’t able to get answers – keep going and trust your instincts! If you know what you are experiencing is not normal, please keep fighting and advocating for yourself.

Being diagnosed with many different chronic illnesses has definitely made me the person I am today and in a way I’m grateful for the experiences and resilience that having a chronic illness has given me! I’m a much stronger person than I used to be 3 years ago, I am more empathetic and understanding of people’s situations. I fully understand now how debilitating fatigue and living with pain every day can be, but also now realise that you can’t always see on the surface that people are struggling.

So the main message of this piece is to remind you to be kind (especially to yourself) – you never know what someone might be struggling with under the surface. Your kindness and empathy might just change someone’s day, maybe even their life! So don’t wait to be kind, be kind today!