This year's EYM meeting was held in the beautiful town of Graz in Austria from 9th to the 12th August and was a fantastic success.

There was a busy and interesting programme lined up for everyone, which included some excellent workshops and presentations, time for socialising and of course the Loekie Cup sporting activity - this year it was dodgeball!!

We heard some great presentations this year including one from UCB on Clinical Trials and Drug Development, which gave a real insight into how this complicated process works. There was also a very good Media Relations workshop given by renowned Public Relations firm Fleishman-Hillard. This helped us to think of ways to get stories about Crohn's and Colitis into the press and how to raise awareness.

The workshop about "Our unspoken needs" brought out some of the issues that young people with IBD have to face that can be difficult to talk about. For example, we discussed how it might be difficult for classmates and teachers at school and university to understand the illness because they do not think you look unwell. A possible solution for this was to provide a booklet explaining what Crohns and Colitis is and perhaps even giving a presentation.

Elisabeth Zierler from OMCCV led a very interesting workshop, which gave everyone the opportunity to create a collage out of a variety of materials. The collage was to represent our thoughts and feelings about our past, present and future. When we all talked about what each of our collages meant to us, it was great to see that nearly everyone was optimistic and positive about their future.

Elections were held to decide who the new member of the EYG would be and the two substitutes. Iva Bozicevic from Croatia was elected as the new member of the EYG and Andrea Muelhaupt from Switzerland and Nicola Baxter from the UK were elected as substitutes.

The finale of the weekend was the Gala dinner and Loekie award's night. A fantastic time was had by all, and a number of awards were presented to participants. These included the Loekie Cup, which was presented to Group 2 who performed best overall in the activities of the weekend. An award was also presented to Susanne Kaplan for all the fantastic work she has done during her time with the EYG, as she has now stepped down. Marco Greco also received an award for his outstanding work as chairperson of the EYG and the great contribution he has made over the past ten years he has been part of the EYG. Paul Gimenes and Anne-Cecile Bravo from France won the prestigious Loekie Plate for their excellent poster about an idea for a new project - a film about young people with IBD overcoming their illness and achieving their dreams.

After such a great weekend in Graz, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we are all looking forward to next years meeting in Paris!

Nicola Baxter