Samantha encourages others with #itdontdefine campaign

A Brisbane woman is on a mission to show others their illness, and “battle scars”, don’t need to define them or what they can achieve.

Samantha Cook-Bateman has started a campaign to encourage other women to not let their illness define who they are and what they can achieve. Picture: AAP/Sarah Marshall

A BRISBANE woman is on a mission to show others their illness doesn’t need to define them or what they can achieve.

Samantha Cook-Bateman, of Brighton, is encouraging women to love their “battle scars” through an #itdontdefine campaign.

Mrs Cook-Bateman is no stranger to living with a chronic disease. She has battled with endometriosis for most of her life and has had 16 surgeries to manage it.

Her abdomen, back and backside are covered in scars.

Samantha Cook-Bateman shows off her “battle scars”. Picture: Troy Lum Commercial Photography

“I’ve felt like a lab rat,” she said.

“It took three (laparoscopic) surgeries over six years before I was diagnosed with endometriosis.”

That was followed by another seven laparoscopic surgeries, emergency surgery to insert a colostomy bag and remove about 10cm of her large intestine following a perforated bowel, surgery to remove the colostomy bag and perform an ileostomy, and another surgery to reverse the ileostomy.

She’s also had two surgeries to have a neuromodulation unit placed in her backside and four wires in her spine to help control the pain, and one for a hysterectomy.

She’s had a round of IVF which ended in renal failure, seven miscarriages and has lost count of the number of emergency room visits.

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All of this has left her with physical and emotional scars but it hasn’t stopped her from carving out a successful career and running her own business.

“You feel like you’re crazy, you start to question yourself,” Mrs Cook-Bateman said.

“I know the scars are there but it’s not just physical, it’s emotional as well.

“You feel fragile. Waking up in the morning after a six hour surgery, I felt fragile and it impacts everything in your life.

“I freak out in hospitals. People in scrubs – if they’re in hats – it freaks me out. The smell of hand sanitiser and nasal swabs freak me out.

“I had the perception that people thought I was fragile, still to this day. My husband is kind of going through that as well.

“When I actually stop and think about what I’ve been through – particularly the 18 months of bowel stuff – I survived it and sometimes I wonder how I did it. I had days when I didn’t want to keep going.”

Samantha Cook-Bateman at her home in Brighton. Picture: AAP/Sarah Marshall

Mrs Cook-Bateman said she wanted to share her story “as I can’t let women out there think they can’t start their own business, get that dream job, or go back to uni”.

She said the key moment for her was hearing about a woman who had a battery pacemaker to stop pain but asked for it to be removed because she thought her husband wouldn’t love her anymore because she wasn’t in pain.

“There are women out there thinking like this and I thought I have to do something about it.

“What I’m hoping is that I will find other women who will share their stories of what they have gone through and how they are doing what they’re doing.

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“My message to partners is it’s a delicate balance between wanting to protect someone and looking after them and wrapping them in cotton wool. The frustrating part is when people put you in cotton wool. Be supportive by telling them they’re beautiful.

“And to other women, I say communicate. Tell people what you’re feeling and when they’re being too over protective.”

Mrs Cook-Bateman has created an #itdontdefine website and pages on Facebook and Instagram.