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Lorna Haymes lost so much weight she was "like a skeleton" and was so slim her bones jutted out and she was in pain from just sitting on a chair.

Medics told the 33-year-old that she was suffering from anorexia nervosa.

They also suspected she was taking a large amount of laxatives to lose weight, even though she denied it.

But in actually fact, Lorna was suffering from Crohn's Disease – an inflammatory bowel disease.

The former trainee surveyor, from Manchester, said: "When I was a teen, I lost so much weight just sitting in bath would have me in agony.

"My spine was so bony, I was a skeleton and my bones dug into me.

"I would go to the toilet straight after eating, so doctors thought I was taking laxatives.

"In the end I was so malnourished I couldn't even pick up a cup."

The life-alerting condition started when she was just 14 years old and she began to lose weight at an alarming rate.

She said: "I had always been a healthy weight and suddenly it was dropping off.

"It would just keep happening. My weight was so up and down

"Aged 16, I was wearing clothes meant for 13-year-olds I was so skinny."

Her parents took her to a doctor who suggested she had an eating disorder.

She said: "They kept asking me how I felt about my body.

"I told them I had no issues with it.

"But they said I wouldn't know if I did have an eating disorder.

"Everything I ate went straight through my body, so they thought I was abusing laxatives."

Aged 17,Lorna struggled to keep food down, which only fuelled the doctor's suspicion.

She said: "I was throwing up every morning. I'd eat something and then throw up.

"Doctors said it was bile in my nose settling in my stomach, so I had surgery on my nose to stop it when I was 18.

"It didn't make a difference, I carried on getting worse.

"I was like an old woman, I had joint pains, it was agony to walk.

"Even picking up a cup would hurt me."

To make matter worse, she was also diagnosed with reactive arthritis.

She continued to lose weight and at 21, she was finally diagnosed with Crohn's disease at Spire Manchester hospital.

"I was relieved to have a name for it, but my health had gone down the drain," she said.

"I was put on steroids to make me stronger."

There is no known cure for Crohn's disease and treatment can only keep it in remission.

But at 24, Lorna made the brave decision to have a colostomy bag fitted.

She said: "When I woke up with this bag on my stomach, I instantly regretted it.

"I hated it so much, I avoided leaving the house.

"I was convinced people could smell it."

Lorna was so uncomfortable with the stoma that she had it removed 16 months later. But her condition deteriorated again.

"In January last year, I couldn't walk or even get out of bed," she said.

In March last year she had the bag fitted again, but now feels much more confident about herself.

She also came up with a campaign called #getyourbellyout with three other Crohn's disease sufferers via Facebook.

She said: "I'm the only one of us with an ostomy bag so I bit the bullet and had my picture taken so others in the same position would see it.

"I took a picture of myself standing in a tiny top and shorts showing my bag, using the hashtag.

"I thought, 'Someone's got to be the first one, so it may as well be me.'

"That was two days after my surgery and I put it online with the hashtag."

Now Lorna is confident in her own skin and has a new partner, Ryan Bradbury, 22.

She said: "He's just so mature about the bag, it doesn't bother him.

"He'll talk to it and sometimes it will make noises but we just laugh about it.

"I'm so lucky to have him.

"Now I'll even wear my bag on the beach.

"I just want other people in my position to feel comfortable with it.

"We shouldn't be ashamed of our bags."