Sean first got into fitness when he was 13 doing Kickboxing, opening his eyes to martial arts and has been doing that alongside being a Personal Trainer.

What is Crohn’s disease and when did you start to realise something wasn’t right?

 Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune disease where your body attacks itself. Sean has had Crohn’s since he was 15 but things took a turn for the worse when he was 19, passing blood every time he went to the toilet. which was at least 20 time a day. He was in and out of hospital, getting nowhere which led him to change hospitals.

“I stayed in Oldham hospital for 14 weeks still passing blood at least 20 times a day. I went into hospital at 90kilo and left at 44kilo losing the weight rapidly. They operated on me trying to make me better”

 2 months later in Amsterdam, Sean got internal scar tissue, ending up in hospital for 3 days.

“I chose to discharge myself and fly home, instead of being operated in there.”

He was operated on again back in England a few days before Christmas which they perforated his bowel, meaning he had to stay in there 3 more days, causing him to get sepsis,

“I had to go into emergency surgery and got put in an induced coma all over Christmas and new year. I had to stay in for another 15 weeks to recover to get one of my colostomy bags reversed as I had 2” After that, Sean has been let out and smashing his recovery since,

How did you mentally overcome your battle with Crohn’s?

 From this Sean got PTSD and server anxiety, causing him to have panic attacks, Sean’s managed to overcome thing by surrounding himself with good people in and out of the gym and keeping himself busy with Personal Training and fighting, always keeping his mind busy and trying to always stay positive. When posting about his story on social media, showing that he has accepted when he has been through, the responses he was getting from people with the same condition and giving them motivation to better themselves keeps Sean motivated and makes him feel a lot better.

What was your first thoughts and experiences with the ostomy bag?

 “The first though I had when I got the bag was ‘when can I go to the gym and when can I start training’.”

He started looking for people training with colostomy bag but couldn’t find any with a good gym physique. “This made me accept the bag and wanted to become that person I was looking for motivation”. He wants to be that person that people in the same situation can look up to as a guy who lives a normal life and doesn’t let it hold him back, such as walking around shirtless making it a normal thing with the colostomy bag.

 Sean became a PT as a backup while he was playing football, he has always been in fitness because of his dad and originally wanted to take football more seriously. “Personal Training is something that I enjoy doing and it doesn’t feel like work, and I’m good at it.” He unfortunately had to quit football due to being so ill. From the two final operations the doctors think the only reason Sean survived was because he was so fit and healthy, and he has dedicated his whole life to fitness since. “If it wasn’t for that I would be dead. I am so grateful to be alive and I appreciate every moment.” So, his goal now is to inspire people in the fitness industry and go down the fitness modelling route with his colostomy bag just to show how empowering and normal it is, as people tend to shy away. “It doesn’t defy who you are, the only difference between me and other people is that I go to the toilet standing up and I see that as an advantage”

Any tips on how to stay positive and motivated?

 Just do it, don’t even think about it, the longer you leave it you’re just going to regret it, you can’t keep thinking, what if it doesn’t work, you don’t. my best advice and tips would be risk it, the best thing in fitness is taking risks. With great risks come great rewards. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry and there’s always someone going through something 10 times worse than you.  A quote Sean stands by is “live for today because tomorrow isn’t promised”

Instagram - @sean_carr_pt