In the Sunday Express this week: My JIA Story

I've been asked a few times to share my story of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) in magazines and the press. Since Miss T was diagnosed nearly two and a half years ago when she was just two years old, I've been especially keen to raise awareness of Juvenile arthritis.

The sad thing is that in the past 30 years since my own diagnosis, arthritis is still considered to be an 'old persons disease'. I see the same shocked expressions when people hear of Miss T's condition being arthritis as I did when people used to ask me why I was on crutches back in 1987.

This needs to change. Not just change for the sake of change but because if awareness is increased, then it will have a tangible effect on the quality of life for those children affected. Even amongst medical professionals, awareness can be low - so when a GP is presented with a child with joint pain or swelling, they may not even have JIA on their radar as a possible option.

These days, prompt diagnosis can mean prompt treatment and whilst there is no cure, treating the JIA quickly can make all the difference and prevent lifelong joint damage from occurring.

So that is why I tell my story. I'm particularly pleased with the article in the S Mag supplement of the Sunday Express this week because it tells the story in a lot more detail than previous journalists have done AND it tells a little of Miss T's story too. You can find the article online here if you missed the paper on Sunday.

Whilst I have found ways of helping my condition, taking the GOPO joint supplement for example on a regular basis, because the joint damage was done all those years ago, life is far from perfect where my arthritis is concerned.

I hope that for children being diagnosed these days, it will be a different story.

I'm always wary about making people think there is any miracle cure out there but it is good to hear of other cases where something they've tried has helped. Here's Larry Lamb telling of his experiences of joint pain and taking GOPO.




I want to point out that this blogpost is not sponsored content. I have been taking GOPO on an ongoing basis since I did a blog trial of it a few years ago which you can read about here. The people at GOPO have kindly continued to send me GOPO, but I only continue to take it because I feel it helps me.

For children with JIA, I strongly recommend following the medication plan from their rheumatologist. Miss T has methotrexate injections on a regular basis and we will continue to follow the medical advice from her rheumatologist. At some point in the future when we hope that her condition is considered stable in adulthood, I would encourage her to try GOPO for ongoing joint health.

We've put together some information on JIA here that helped us a lot when Miss T was first diagnosed in case it is of use to anyone going through a similar situation.