Arthritis: It's a pain, but don't suffer in silence
ARTHRITIS is the biggest single cause of physical disability in the UK and leaves thousands of sufferers facing daily debilitating pain.
Last week was Arthritis Care Awareness Week when sufferers were urged to take control of their pain and the constraints it imposes on their lives.
A new self-help group serving Lynn and West Norfolk aims to help people to do just that. Reporter Louise Brain met some of its members to find out how the group can really help.
HUSBAND and wife Dave and Ros Randall know all about the challenges of living with arthritis.
Dave (65) has suffered osteoarthritis since his 20s after his back and ankles were smashed in an accident in the Air Force.
Then, two-and-a-half years ago, Ros (62) was struck down with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable disease where the immune systems attacks the joints, leaving the sufferer in terrible pain and trying to cope with an overwhelming fatigue.
Dave said: "It comes along without any warning at all. She blew up like a football and didn't move out of the house for six months, apart from a couple of times in a wheelchair. The pain involved is horrendous.
"She couldn't even get through the night unless I turned her every hour or half hour because she was in such pain. If these things get hold of you it is absolutely terrifying."
Then last year the Lynn couple went along to a six-week course run by the charity Arthritis Care, entitled Challenging Pain.
Dave said: "I expected it to be all OAPs sitting around and sharing their troubles, but it wasn't like that at all. I got dragged along to this thing and it was absolutely wonderful.
"It was the first time we had been given methods of coping with our problems. It was all about setting little targets to achieve.
"They don't have to be mind bogglingly difficult things, just small steps to take control of your lives again.
"When you are in a great deal of pain every day and taking these drugs it can be very, very depressing and you can go into a spiral that makes things worse.
"This course made an enormous difference to my wife's health and state of mind.
"I was keen to start a self-help group and keep these people we had got to know on track but also to spread the news to people to make a difference to their lives."
And so it came to be that the Arthritis Care Lynn and District Self-Help Group was formed earlier this year.
The group meets every month at the NORA office, Wisbech Road, South Lynn.It aims to have a guest speaker, but the main focus is on creating an informal meeting where people can share experiences, information and make progress together.
Ros said: "After diagnosis you do go into depression and think your life is over, but you see somebody else and they say 'you will be OK' and you are.
"It's the trivial things, like I might say 'I've discovered something that helps me open jars in the kitchen' and it helps everyone, then someone else says 'have you tried this?'"
Roger Sams (64), of North Wootton, who also suffers rheumatoid arthritis, is another member of the group.
He said: "It has helped me from a personal point of view because hearing people talk about their problems, you realise they are also your problems. You can learn from other people and find they have discovered something that is helping them that could also help you."
Arthritis Care is campaigning for improved services for people with the condition. In the meantime it believes many others can benefit in the way the members of the Lynn self-help group have.
The charity's director for central England John McGregor said: "Our message during this year's Arthritis Care Awareness Week is simple: If you have arthritis, don't struggle alone with the pain – there's plenty of support out there to help you take control of your pain and your life."
Arthritis Care Lynn and District Self Help Group meets on the third Thursday of every month (the next meeting being May 21), 10.30am to 12.30pm, at the NORA office, off the Southgate roundabout, South Lynn. Call Dave Randall on 01553 774013 for more details.
To order a free Pain Pack from Arthritis Care, or to find out more about its courses go to www.arthri tiscare.org.uk or call 0808 800 4050.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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