During Coeliac Awareness Week we 'dived behind the label of coeliac disease and gluten free for life' to show Kiwis that this is a serious auto-immune condition and that a 100% gluten-free diet is the first-line, lifelong treatment – it is not just a trend.

Thank you to everyone who has shared thier personal journey with coeliac disease to help raise awareness.

This is Julie's story

For as long as I can remember I've always had a bloated tummy after eating - especially big pasta meals! In my teens, I never ate breakfast (traditionally gluten laden cereals or toast) and was never a fan of sandwiches for lunch either. Looking back now, I can see that these are indicators of Coeliac Disease, although at the time I thought it was just the way I was made. Things came to a head when I had just turned 40 and I started losing my hair. I'd wake up in the morning and my pillowcase would be covered in the hair I'd lost overnight. The tiles in the bathroom would be covered after each shower. I'd been low in iron, despite having a 'good' diet. I was also rushing to the toilet about 10 minutes after eating, and that wasn't just to get out of doing the dishes!

By now it was Christmas and I'd had just a very stressful time in my business, so I put this all down to stress and rich food over the festive season. When I was still having these symptoms in February of the following year, I knew it was time to get myself to the doctors. I felt like a bit of a fraud explaining my symptoms to my GP, but she was great. She sent me off for a range of blood tests, one of which was for Coeliac Disease.

The blood results came back strongly positive and so my gluten free journey began. Next came bone density scans, meetings with dietitians, learning to read food labels and adjusting to a new way of eating. The two hardest things for me to wrap my head around when I was first diagnosed was one, telling others and two, I'd never be able to cook out of the hundreds of cookbooks I own. I didn't want to be one of those 'high maintenance' friends! I feared that I would be labelled as the one with the difficult dietary requirements and so I'd never be invited over for dinner. I needn't have worried. All my friends have been amazing. I'm lucky I have foodie friends who have loved the challenge of making GF meals!

And now I have an excuse to buy more cookbooks!

Coeliac journey provided by Coeliac NZ member Julie Whitcombe