Alessia Maio

My WHY 💟

This year i’m participating in the Live Fearless Challenge. This fundraising initiative could not hit closer to home for me. As you all know by now, I live with Crohn’s Disease and have done for a number of years. This disease is simply debilitating and has changed the entire course of my life. I try to do at least one fundraiser a year to encourage people to step up and show kindness for others and to bring the community together. After countless surgeries, medication trials, low dose chemo pills for years and many scans and tests, my small bowel crohn’s is in remission. Unfortunately, my perianal crohn’s is still running rampant in the lowest end of my digestive tract. It’s seriously such a pain in the bum 😂🤪 

I feel so privileged to join the Poo Fighters team this year, led by super mum Kelly Bongiovanni. Kelly has become my fairy godmother over the last year. She has introduced me to her wonderful family and I have a special place in my heart for her son Xavier. Xav is 5 years old and lives with Ulcerative Colitis and there’s no other word to describe him other than a fighter. He has faced more challenges than anyone should face in their lifetime and his life has barely begun. He is so brave, kind, and a cheeky monster. I love him like a brother and Kelly and Paul have done an incredible job to raise such a resilient young man. Xavier has taught me a lot - his strength inspires me and his cheekiness always makes me laugh. As awful as this disease is, I am grateful it has introduced me to some truly wonderful people. I have formed friendships all over Australia with some incredible people who live with this horrible disease, I guess it’s my silver lining. 

I kindly ask for you to donate anything you can, so that we can work towards a cure for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). All donations over $2 are tax deductible and every dollar counts! As usual, I will be running a Cupcake Drive to raise money and I encourage you all to grab a box! 

Thank you in advance for your support and let’s do this 💟