May 19 is World IBD Day – a day to draw attention to the debilitating chronic conditions that fall within the family known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

These include Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease, both of which cause bleeding, joint pain, urgent, uncontrolled bowel movements, chronic fatigue, and a forced change in lifestyle, among other conditions.

Perhaps the worst aspect of these conditions, of which I myself am a sufferer, is the fact that they are, in fact, invisible disabilities. People like me ‘look’ well on the outside but are suffering terribly on the inside.

Therefore, May 19 is all the more important to us to be able to raise awareness on these conditions and try to foster further understanding. Around the world, various well-known monuments are being lit up on May 19 in purple, the colour associated with IBD, to mark this occasion. Countries that have signed up, some with more than one monument, include Hungary, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy and Brazil among many others.

Unfortunately, I have no idea whether Malta will be joining, and not for want of trying. I wrote to the Minister of Health, Chris Fearne, and to the Prime Minister and his Chief of Staff to try to get the ball rolling in case nobody has already, but my e-mails have remained unanswered, unacknowledged. How disheartening.

Soldier on and fight in silence we must.