Making Headlines

 So, today has been a massive success for my campaign to create awareness of arthritis in young people. For a while now I have been trying to get the attention of the media by telling my story to ensure that sufferers no longer feel alone. It’s important that the general public are aware of the disease, especially that it occurs in young people too. I am not one for fame, frankly I hate having my picture taken (believe it or not I am not loving the current steroid bloat I am sporting!) but if having my face plastered across papers and on TV ensures that even one person can understand arthritis a little better, then I am all for it.
Today is World Arthritis Day. To help promote this I agreed to do some interviews with regional media, including the Press and Journal newspaper in Scotland, a live radio broadcast with BBC Hereford and Worcester and a feature on BBC Midlands Today news programme. Scary stuff, may I add. I am confident in talking about my disease but it’s slightly different when you have cameras and microphones pointing at you. The radio and TV crews arrived at my home today and were ever so polite. I was worried that sometimes the media have a way of twisting stories to make them look fake (for example asking me to sit in a wheel chair or something which is not how I operate at the moment). But they have all been truthful and realistic in their approach and I am very grateful for their support.
It was great to feel like a little bit of a star for the day, although typically my condition means I am now exhausted from all the nonsense. I have had some fantastic feedback from viewers and readers who have flooded my inbox with their stories and I couldn’t have hoped for more. My mum was unexpectedly dragged into the shots for the news programme (reluctantly) but she did fantastic too! I feel an overwhelming sense of achievement today that I have done my bit to help others but by no means is this the end of my fight to teach the world about the negative and positive aspects of living with arthritis. I hope I have maybe changed some people’s perceptions of the disease.
I find it therapeutic to keep my mind busy. As I’ve mentioned before, being out of work is no fun, so I do all I am capable of in the form of writing and campaigning. For so long I felt isolated and unworthy because of my condition. But through sheer determination, I have got to a point where I am confident that one day I will return to work and do a bloody good job!
So enough from me... I am going to retire to the comfort of my warm bed and sleep off my incredibly long day in front of the cameras. It’s been emotional… Happy World Arthritis Day my friends.