This Girl is Wearing a Bikini, Proudly Flaunting Her Colostomy Bag

For many women, body confidence is a hard trait to acquire, making swimsuit season an especially anxious time. And while it’s hard enough to work up the courage to wear a bikini to the beach, can you imagine having wear a colostomy bag at the same time?

For Heather Grant, this is exactly what she’ll be doing this summer. But instead of feeling ashamed, covering up, or avoiding instances like this one altogether, she’s choosing to proudly flaunt herself in a bikini — colostomy bag included.

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Grant, 23, who has Crohn’s disease, underwent a lifesaving operation to remove part of her bowel back in December 2015. Complications ensued after the surgery, causing a lethal amount of fluid to build up in her stomach and necessitating the use of a colostomy bag. “I never thought I’d feel confident enough to wear a bikini again,” Heather tells The Huffington Post. “I was just so embarrassed and disgusted with myself at first.”

Her feelings towards the bag slowly changed due to the realization that her pain had subsided and that she had survived the life-threatening surgery. “Now I’m really happy and back to my normal self,” she said. “I know in the future I can have it reversed, but now I’ve lived with a stoma bag for the past five months, I know it’s not that bad at all.”

Now, five months after her surgery, Heather has booked her first vacation and has been proudly showing off her colostomy bag while away. And considering how happy and healthy she’s become, why shouldn’t she flaunt it? Everyone deserves a summertime getaway, and the colostomy bag is keeping her pain-free.

Although uncommon, Heather isn’t the only one to publicly wear such a prosthetic. Model Bethany Townsend exposed her own while at the beach back in 2014, which later sparked the #myCCUKstory (Crohn’s and Colitis UK) on Facebook, urging others to join in sharing images like Heather and Bethany’s.

Considering Crohn’s Disease is a life-long illness, people should be able to continue to live their lives as normally as possible, without having to feel ashamed for their colostomy bag. For more information on Crohn’s, visit this website.