A charity is aiming to remove the stigma against stoma bag wearers by making a calendar featuring real people modelling their own.
Stomawise, an ostomy support charity, has chosen a variety of models from the submissions to its Facebook page. The pictures include men, women and children.
Stoma bags (or colostomy bags) are used when surgery requires someone to divert the flow of faeces and/or urine into the external pouch rather than through the body.
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They can be used by a large range of people, including those with Crohn's disease and bladder cancer.
The charity reached out to its Facebook followers for submissions. Charity founder John Walsh told The Mirror: "For the winning entries we look for people who are doing everyday things. We're not really looking for people sending selfies of them in bikinis, it's about people getting on with their lives.
"It's helping so many people and giving them confidence. It's still seen as a taboo, but everybody goes to the toilet.
"When we first started the calendar we had about 60 entries, but now we get entries from people all over the world. People take pictures throughout the year because they know they would like to send an entry in for the calendar. We have had people who two years ago told us they could never submit a picture like that, and who now are sending in entries themselves."
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Here are some of the winning submissions:
Credit: Stomawise/Facebook
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Last year's calendar apparently sold 5,000 copies. This year, the charity hopes to double the amount sold and has ordered 10,000 calendars to be printed.
Featured image credit: Stomawise/Facebook
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