Vanilla Blush founder and CEO, Nicola Dames, called for the ending of any stigma which surrounds Stoma surgery. 

Speaking live on BBC Radio, Dames encouraged surgeons, doctors and nurses to speak positively to patients about the benefits of Ostomy surgery and living with a Stoma bag.

Speaking at length on the Kaye Adams shgow, BBC Radio Scotland, Dames was joined by Consultant Dr Daniel Gaya, a specialist in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and Elaine Steven, a Health Service Development Manager at Crohn's & Colitis UK. 

Dublin-born Dames said: "Colitis is a very debilitating and disfiguring disease and, actually, having the surgery allows you to live your life again. Maybe you have to make some changes in your fashion, but there is nothing too outlandish that you couldn't look as normal as the next person. 

They need to be surrounded with more positive people, and that needs to start with the surgeons, the nurses etc. Everybody needs to be a bit more positive that it's not a negative thing," she concluded.