Travelling abroad with an IBD, indeed any health problem, has a few additional complications on top of the standard hassle of not forgetting anything important, leaving on time and not losing your bank cards.
To help ease some of the stress I’ve developed a variation of the NACC’s ‘Can’t wait card’ for you to use when travelling abroad. This card will help you communicate when you need to use public toilet facilities but don’t know where they are. If there are no public facilities nearby then the card also asks if you can use private / staff facilities. The second side of the card is for those occasions when there is a public toilet, but you need to pay to use it – and you don’t have the right change.
Although many people speak English across the world, and there are phrase books that help you, my experience is that rushing to try to find a toilet is stressful and difficult to communicate. You are often misunderstood. These useful phrases often don’t appear in phrase books. In some rural areas the majority of people don’t speak English.
I have had the following text translated into French and put it into a Credit card sized pdf that you can print out and laminate. You can keep it in your wallet/pocket for emergencies.
This is free to download but if you can afford to it would be great if you could donate to a charity which supports Crohn’s and Colitis .e.g. through my Just giving page. If you can’t print this out and laminate it yourself please contact me as I can do this for you. I will charge a fee for materials, postage and a donation.
What the card says
SIDE 1:
Culturally appropriate greeting
Please help!
I have a medical condition which means I need to use the toilet urgently.
This condition is not infectious or hazardous to other people.
Please can you show me where the nearest toilets are that I can use?
If there are no public toilets nearby, may I use your staff facilities?
Culturally appropriate way of expressing thanks
SIDE 2.
Culturally appropriate greeting
Please help!
I have a medical condition which means I need to use the toilet urgently.
This condition is not infectious or dangerous to other people.
I do not have the entrance fee required to use these toilets, and because of the pain I am in I do not have time to get the correct change.
Please will you let me use these toilets? I will come back and pay afterwards.
Culturally appropriate way of expressing thanks
Directions
- Please make a donation to Crohns and Colitis UK through my ‘Just Giving’ page
- Print out the Please help card in French
- Cut out the two card shapes below
- Glue them together, so the text is showing on the outside
- Place in a laminating sleeve
- Laminate!
- Alternatively you could make two cards by not gluing them together and laminating them separately.
Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks to Irma Elizabeth, languages teacher, for her translation of the text into French for this card.
An if you have missed the embedded links here they are:
Just giving donation page for Crohn’s and Colitis UK
Over the next couple of days I will be uploading a Frenchnew language versions of the card. Do you speak another language? Can you help this project? Contact me if you can!
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