It was extremely painful.

Like there were days where I couldn't leave my house, could barely leave the bathroom.

Safran Cassidy was just 22 years old when she was diagnosed with a disease called ulcerative

colitis.

It's a chronic condition that causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the large intestine.

It can be very painful and there really isn't a cure so once you get it, you probably have

it for life.

When I was diagnosed, it was quite mild and I remember thinking naively like 20-year-olds

do.

Oh, this won't last forever or this will continue to be mild.

I'm going to be fine.

But what happened over the course of about a decade was my condition just got worse and

worse every year.

The medications that I was originally prescribed weren't doing as much for me and after about

10 years, I was kind of running out of options.

Safran was desperate.

I just remember lying on my bathroom floor curled up in the fetal position, crying because

I don't understand what's happening to me.

How can this be so debilitatingly painful?

And I can't do this again.

I just can't keep doing this day after day, year after year.

So that was my push to find an ulcerative solution.

...