In 2017, at the age of 28, Ms Rowling was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis - an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

"This disease could have killed me and left my four month old and nine year old without a mum if I hadn't gone to the doctors four years ago and been honest with them," she said.

"People don't talk about it."

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World IBD Awareness Day on Thursday is celebrated annually to remove the stigma around the disease.

For Ms Rowling, it was scary when she was told that her life was about to change.

"To be told that there was no other options, and they would take my intestines - it wasn't a choice, I was told it was happening," she said.

"You feel like your world is going to end because you don't know who you are anymore.

"It seems like such a small thing when it's not you going through it, but it's huge."

At the height of her disease, she had to use the bathroom 30 to 40 times a day.

She now uses an ileostomy and her small intestines come out of her stomach. She still has a few more surgeries coming up, including a procedure to make bowel movements internal again.

But on the bright side, after four years on drugs, she is currently on zero medication.

One of the hardest things for Ms Rowling was not the ileostomy, but an open abdominal surgery that has left her with a scar and without a belly button.

She wants others struggling with the disease to not be ashamed, and for the public to know people have these issues.

"I wish I was never diagnosed, but do I think it's made me a strong person?" she said.

"One hundred per cent.

"It's impacted me so much more than I ever thought it would, but I'm thankful for it because I could have given up, and I didn't."

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