Kangaroo Club Information Day 2026

Kangaroo Club Information Day 2026

The Kangaroo Club held their annual Information Day in Oxford on Saturday 10 October, with the theme of “The Big Picture”.  Chair Laura Dunn and her team had once again put together an interesting and varied day for some 40 or so pouchees, potential pouchees and their partners.  There were also representatives from RLG and from the IA pouch sub group; one of the very few occasions when all three UK charities get together.  

This was a particularly pertinent event for Laura, who was stepping down as Chair after 40 years at the helm along with Secretary Emma Harris.  Laura set the charity up some 40 years ago when her surgeon, Professor Sir Neil Mortensen, suggested it would be a good use of her time! Since then, the KC charity has provided much needed support to pouchees and potential pouchees and Laura has been right at the heart of this.     

KC President is Kat Baker, an eminent and experienced pouch surgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital.  Kat and colleague Mr Ed Dickson spoke about recent advances of interest and relevance to pouchees:

• Improvements in medical imaging to produce sophisticated 3-dimensional computer models of “problem” pouches to enable accurate surgical correction

• Greater precision and better outcomes with robotic surgery and the use of a single “port” instead of a 4-port tool, which means even less scarring and reduced risk of adhesions and stenoses.  Amazing that the pouch surgery can now be carried out with the aid of robots and through a single keyhole in the patient’s abdomen! 

• Early data to show that young people with severe inflammatory bowel disease have high levels of a particular antibody (Anti-IL-10).  This deepens our understanding of the mechanism of inflammation in the body and could lead to cures for IBD and also possibly for pouchitis. 

• The increasing use of social media by young people to find information, treatments, specialist doctors etc.  Ed quoted amazing statistics that 97% of IBD patients go online every day and 22% of youngsters with IBD are members of an Instagram support group.  Ed made the point that there was an increasing need for clinician-derived, informed, trustworthy and ethical content to be generated and posted online to inform and advise patients.  There was also a message for RLG and others to think about an Instagram page as part of their online platforms to attract and appeal to younger pouchees.  In general young people were reported to be “desperate” to have a pouch and to avoid a stoma.  They tend to do well through the surgical part of the journey and then disappear from follow up to get on with their lives.  

Consultant Gastroenterologist Lulia Al-Hillawi spoke about the pouch microbiome – the community of bacteria that live and thrive in the pouch.  The small intestine has very low bacterial colonisation in people with an intact bowel, but over time the pouch develops a complex bacterial community (the microbiome), mimicking to a degree the microbiome of the large intestine in healthy people.  There are 3,000 different species of bacteria in the pouch, including some that are implicated in causing pouchitis.  Dr Al-Hillawi talked about manipulation of the pouch microbiota through diet and probiotics; a wholefood diet is the best diet for a pouch and processed food is to be avoided.  The Fodmap diet was considered good for pouchees to improve function and Luila felt there were benefits in taking probiotics for conditions such as pouchitis. There are no proven benefits for taking pre-biotics to avoid or treat pouchitis. 

Kat Baker and Lulia Al-Hillawi have agreed to produce webinars for RLG in 2027, so keep a look out on facebook and on the website and in Roar for announcements of the 2027 webinar program.  

There were also presentations by Sarah Cripps, Consultant Pharmacist in Gastroenterology at Oxford and  Dr Alexa Duff, Clinical Psychologist on the Gut : Brain connection.  Some of you might remember Dr Duff, who produced a webinar for us during 2026 which is available to download on the website and on our YouTube channel.    Committee member Ruth Cox gave an entertaining and very personal account of her own pouch journey with 5 steps to pouch and whole body well-being.  Finally, the pouch nurses at Oxford, plus Angie Perrin of Salts Healthcare hosted an open Q&A session, with delegates asking detailed questions and benefitting from the wise words of these experts with some 60 years of pouch nursing experience between them.

The icing on the cake was the emergence of five new volunteers expressing an interest in becoming Committee members and expressions of interest for the Chair role.  

David Davies
RLG Chairman