Madison Krawchuck
”Last Christmas was really hard.
We were trying yet another new medication to get Madison’s ulcerative colitis under control and she became desperately ill. She had a reaction and had to be hospitalized when she was only five years old.
In just over a year, Madison has tried ten different medications and she’s been hospitalized five times since last November. Other than the steroids, nothing is working. And she can’t stay on steroids long-term because there are terrible side effects that could affect her growth and bone density.
It breaks our hearts to see Madison suffer this way. She’s still too young to really understand how sick she is, but she’s starting to realize that not all kids have to constantly go to the hospital or miss school.
More than anything we want to find a treatment for Madison that works. Thanks to the support of donors like you, we know that there are new treatments coming down the pipeline and that Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is funding some of the most ambitious and promising research in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in the world.
Since Madison’s diagnosis, we’ve learned that the number of new diagnoses is rising most rapidly in children under the age of six and someone new is diagnosed with Crohn’s or colitis in Canada every 48 minutes. It gives us hope to know that some of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada’s research is focused on better understanding IBD in children and searching for new and better treatments. Research like this means so much to us.
As we write, we’re still waiting to hear if Madison is going to get approval to try yet another new medication. It’s devastating to see Madison go through this over and over again, as every time the doctors try to wean her off the steroids, she ends up having a flare-up and needing to be hospitalized. But we have to have hope that, at some point, something is going to work. And that our sweet little girl is finally going to get better and have the bright, happy, healthy future she deserves.”
Brad and Cheryl Krawchuk
Madison’s Parents