AS a teenager Jonathan Friel battled such extreme gut pain that he would be unable to stand.

He was eventually diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 17.

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Mr Friel, from Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire, said: "It was horrible. I'd had symptoms for about two years and I never really did anything about it.

"I used to play football quite a lot and it would always happen after the game - I thought it was just a really bad stitch.

"But eventually it just became unbearable, to the point where I couldn't play football anymore, and sometimes I couldn't even go to school. So I realised something was definitely wrong.

"The pain is really hard to describe. Sometimes you can't even stand up because of it, and I spent quite a long time hiding it because I was scared to talk about it."

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He sought help from his doctor in the run up to Christmas in 2014, and was sent for tests.

There were fears it could be bowel cancer.

"It ruined Christmas for me thinking that it could be bowel cancer, so I was lucky in a way that it turned out the be colitis," said Mr Friel.

"I started off on tablets called Mezavant for the first two years, taking two every day, but in 2017 I felt they were wearing off and it was starting to come back in quite full force.

"So they doubled the dose and I've been on four tablets a day ever since."

Mr Friel, who is now a secondary school French teacher, said he was most disappointed that the condition had ruined his hopes to play football competitively.

"It's something that I still feel regret about because I used to play at quite a high level, and if you stop for a while your athletic ability falls away. It's quite hard to get that back.

"I still keep fit and go to the gym a couple of times a week, but with colitis you lose a lot of your energy.

"But a couple of years ago I thought I could still get back to the same level and I was making myself ill trying to do it.

"Now I know my level and I can do enough to keep fit and keep in shape.

"It can impact you mentally as well, but I think this is the freshest mindset I've had. I've felt more positive and really well at the moment, so hopefully that continues."