Mary Rae in collaboration with the Southland Crohn's and Colitis Support Group has decided to organize a seminar in the region, a recent report finds. The aim is to address concerns of a large count of people, suffering either themselves or relative of a sufferer of bowel disease.

Mary herself is however also not free of the condition. She has also been struggling from the Crohn's disease, with her son also going through the same. She has even seen her son’s dream of becoming an All Black broken due to the illness.

It has been found that the illness often grows up with time, but is left undiagnosed in most of the cases. A sudden detection in Kirk Rae, her son, caused him to stop playing his favorite rugby for New Zealand. The man has however now turned up to a referee position.

Since Mary is also the co-ordinator of Crohn's and Colitis, she along with it is endeavouring to help thousands of such people by informing them about the illness symptoms. Also, awareness would be raised related to management of the inflammatory bowel disease.

"There are some 15,000 people with these diseases and it's unfortunate that the symptoms - diarrhoea and abdominal pain - are things that people don't often talk about”, said John Wyeth, a Gastroenterologist.