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"Remove The Pain From The Gut- Beat Crohn's Disease"
A motorcycle journey across Israel for the sake of IBD patients'
Anyone who happened to pass Route 90 or the Arava Highway
just before Passover
might have seen an Indian riding a horse with a motor
heading a column of 40 motorcycles.
They're all riding for one cause, an important cause.
We will get back to that later.
We go back a week in time
to the workshop of Be'eri Hudara, also known as the Indian.
He's in the final stages of organizing the journey.
Within four days he and his friends
plan to cross all of Israel.
Our first lunch-stop will be at the Zemach junction on Thursday.
We'll drive down Route 90 all the way to Eilat,
our first stop for the night will be in Kalia.
"Oh dear God, dear God
"Woe is me, woe is me
"Where, oh where
"Oh where
"Is the Land of Israel?
"Every wave carries a memory... "Of home, of the beach...
In the middle of the Yom Kippur War Be'eri found himself
evacuating the dead and wounded out of tanks and APC's
returning from the front.
Nothing prepared him to deal with such sights.
It was very traumatic for me.
I had to help remove the dead from burnt tanks.
Not the tanks, the people were burnt.
"They sat with the captain who had a wooden leg...
Only two years later Be'eri was diagnosed with Chrohn's disease.
Some studies associate the onset of the disease
with emotional traumas.
Be'eri's immune system identifies his digestive system as an enemy
and attacks it forcefully.
From this point on an ordeal begins that lasts three decades.
It's not a coincidence that Chrohn's disease is not well-known.
It's hard to publicize a disease that causes diarrhea,
abdominal pain, inability to control bowel movement and extreme weight loss.
How do you explain what you're going through to the guys?
At the peak of his age and experience Be'eri decided to put an end to it.
He decided to take the disease out of the closet.
If you're dressed and you have to run to the toilet,
you don't make it in time.
My legs were always wet.
It's disgusting, it stinks and it's embarrassing.
I want to shout! -Shout?
Shout to make them recognize that we're seriously ill,
that we need someone to support some of our expenses.
Today Be'eri is considered a seriously ill Chrohn's patient.
After several intestinal resection surgeries,
he is left with only 55 cm of his small intestine.
The food he eats passes almost directly to the bag attached to his stomach.
It is important to note that Berry's medical condition doesn't represent the condition of all the Crohn's and Colitis
patients in Israel, that usualy live without an ostomy bag, and are able to leed a more functional life.
My darling wife... let me tell you,
if I owe my life to anyone, it's to my wife, Batia.
It's not easy to share a bed
and get up in the middle of the night to discover, pardon me,
since we're being open...
You get up, clean up, take a shower.
It's not easy. It's... you know what?
Sometimes it's day after day.
For six years I've been living relatively well.
For the past year and a half I've been very well. -Thank God.
That's when I started getting the Humira injection
which turned everything around. A complete turnabout.
The combination of the ostomy bag and the injection. -It's a winning combination.
You can live with it, you can live with it for a long time...
and live well.
It improves the quality of life.
"On top of shining Mt. Hermon
"At dawn the night speeds away
During the evening some of the riders learn
that one of them is also a Chrohn's patient.
You can't imagine the pain.
not to mention that after a few visits to the toilet
you can't walk.
It's not easy. It's not easy.
The purpose of this journey is to somehow,
with this film,
bring some awareness to this disease in this country
so it reaches the higher levels
so that government will allocate funds to the patients' association.
These patients have an association.
The association doesn't have the money to take care of them.
To help them.
Morning in the northern Dead Sea. The tribe is awakening.
Be'eri has been up since 3:30 a.m.
During the night he had an accident with his ostomy bag.
It's unpleasant. -What happened? -Actually, I wanted to wake you.
Why didn't you? -No...
Tell me what happened. -It burst. -During the night? -Yes.
Tell me. -I've been up since 3:30. -Why?
My bag burst.
It burns a little, but It's really nothing...
I've suffered so much pain in my life...
So if this is my medicine for life - I will willingly stand one of these every week.
After a four-day journey, some of which is not easy,
you understand something very basic about Chrohn's patients -
all they want is a normal life.
I know I can take it because I have a strong will to live.
That's it. Come see me on the journey, join me.
"Remove The Pain From The Gut- Beat Crohn's Disease"
A motorcycle journey across Israel for the sake of IBD patients'
This movie is presented by the "Israel Foundation for crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis"