WALKER: Potty humour and courage, as TV host Derick Fage talks about incontinence By Kimothy Walker for the Ottawa Sun
In a post-Oprah world where every personal issue is “shared,” it’s not often that you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed, before you’ve even had coffee, and think: “He did NOT just write that.”
Then, you read it again.
He did.
TV host Derick Fage had done the unthinkable: He told all who would listen that he was, and had been since birth, incontinent.
The outwardly funny, loving and confident man would later share how he thought about suicide, as a direct result of being born without a fecal sphincter. He even planned his suicide. What saved him was his connection to his loved ones, his parents, siblings and friends. He questioned how he could take his own life and give them only suffering, to escape his.
To be clear, Derick does not leak urine. Fecal sphincter. Imagine trying to date with that issue! Imagine going to a party, or hosting a gala, as he has done hundreds of times, regularly donating his time to charitable causes.
Like hundreds, if not thousands, of people I reached out with my heart-felt congratulations on his bravery. I’m pretty sure I wrote something lame. I’m not sure what the greeting card sentiment is for: “Hey, so you’re incontinent! Good for you!”
What I didn’t know then was that hundreds more people contacted him with their own feelings of isolation, plagued with the same problem. They were people suffering with pain, embarrassment and loneliness. So Derick did the only thing he could think of: He did a TedX talk and told even more people.
A former host on Roger’s television in Ottawa and now host of Breakfast TV in Montreal, the devoted husband and dad commutes home to Ottawa every weekend to be with his loved ones.
