Olivia LeBlanc was only 14 when she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
It was during the pandemic. The Upper Tantallon teen was in pain. An appointment at a medical clinic led to a referral to a gastroenterologist at the IWK hospital. She had a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
“I went in and out of remission, with and without symptoms for about two years,” says LeBlanc in an interview with The Coast. “I tried a whole bunch of different medications and there was nothing that was really working for me, personally.”
When she was 16, she became very sick. Her ulcerative colitis would lead to her having surgery. Part of her colon was removed and an ostomy was installed—an opening that allows waste to exit from a stoma in the abdomen into a pouch.
“I don’t think there’s ever a 16-year-old that would want an ostomy,” says LeBlanc, “but I would go back and do it over again. It gave me back so much that I didn’t know I lost.”
LeBlanc was a dancer, a passion she struggled to keep up with as her disease got in the way.
“That was the main thing that was bugging me. I mean, I could sit in a classroom all day in a chair, not move around and it’d be relatively simple. But when dancing 30 hours a week, it was hard to keep up, especially with all my dance friends around me and my teammates.
“I couldn’t keep up to their level, which was causing me to have to lower my commitment level, which was very frustrating.”
The surgery helped her get back to some semblance of normalcy.
“There was a few limitations that I had a few months to recover, but after I had my ostomy, it was wonderful. I regained everything. There’s nothing at all I can think of I was restricted in doing dance-wise,” says LeBlanc.
LeBlanc is now a 20-year-old medical sciences student at Dalhousie University. At 18, she elected to have a surgery that reversed the ostomy while she could still do so under the IWK’s care. On top of her studies, she is dedicated to creating support systems with others with inflammatory bowel diseases.
Last year, she reached out to Crohn’s and Colitis Canada about starting a society for those with inflammatory bowel diseases at Dalhousie so fellow students with similar health issues could find support in a safe and comfortable space. On top of running the Dalhousie Crohn’s and Colitis society, she was also the Atlantic Canadian honourary chair of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada’s 2026 Gutsy Walk.
It was all of this advocacy that saw LeBlanc chosen as one of 15 recipients for the 2026 AbbVie IBD Scholarship, which comes with $5,000 to use towards her studies at Dalhousie. In her third-year of medical sciences, she says her diagnosis and experience with ulcerative colitis has influenced her profession.
“I want to become a doctor,” she says. “I plan to apply to medical school.”
LeBlanc felt isolated when she was first diagnosed. Her family tried her best to support her, but as she puts it, “you don’t really know what it’s like to go to the bathroom 20 times a day.”
“It’s hard to explain that feeling and just, like, the mental load that brings on, as well,” says LeBlanc. “Years later, when I reached out to Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, it was such a huge community that I didn’t know existed. You find out naturally that there are a lot of Canadians, a lot of people in the world, who are diagnosed with IBD, but that’s just a number. It’s only when you see it, you see all the people, you can see the support that there is and all the different resources.”
Now, LeBlanc is chasing her dream of becoming a doctor. She’s continued with dance, becoming a dance teacher. She’s also trying to provide the support that will help people like herself overcome the isolation of inflammatory bowel diseases.
“If you’re new to IBD or you have family, or you’re just interested, do a quick Google search. Reach out,” she says. “You will find a community. There are people around you who want to support you.”
