Altitude was worse than stoma on Kilimanjaro trek

One of a team of women who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of stomas said she wanted to prove she could "do something great".

A film entitled Cloudline: Where Women Rise has been released online documenting the expedition of 17 women, who have a stoma bag or are survivors of birth trauma.

The voyage in Tanzania was led by Gill Castle, the first person with a stoma to swim the English Channel, to raise funds for her charity Chameleon Buddies.

Participant Sophie Excell, from Maidstone, said: "It wasn't just about getting to the top, it was about the whole experience."

The nurse, who has a stoma bag, told BBC Radio Kent she had been inspired by Castle, from Alnwick in Northumberland, after the Channel swim and decided to apply to the expedition.

"I saw Gill doing her channel swim while I was off recovering from more surgery and I just thought, why can't I do something amazing like that?'," she said.

Chameleon Buddies supports women in the UK to "navigate the psychological and physical shift of life" with a stoma or a childbirth injury.

The organisation also says it works in Kenya to provide "medical supplies, stoma bags, and peer support to women in Kenyan communities who often face severe stigma and lack of resources".

Castle, who has a permanent stoma following childbirth complications in 2011, founded the charity.

Excell said it took her "years" to build confidence after she had to have an emergency stoma procedure in 2012, aged 20.

"It wasn't really a choice for me and it was absolutely terrifying," she told the BBC.

"You just think you're the only one out there that no one is going to accept it."

Excell said there was now "so many things" she could now do that she "never would have even dreamt of before" because of worries connected to her stoma.

On the Kilimanjaro climb her stoma bag "actually wasn't too much of a problem" and it was in fact the altitude that was "the hardest bit".

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