Sixty years young: Arthritis Care Awareness Week 2007

Main Category: Arthritis / Rheumatology
Article Date: 21 Apr 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Nine million Britons, including 12,000 children, currently live with arthritis, the country's biggest single cause of physical disability, and, as the population ages, that figure can only rise.

In 2025, the number of over-85s is predicted to have mushroomed by two-thirds, placing the health service under unprecedented strain.

In commemorating its Diamond Jubilee this year, Arthritis Care - the biggest voluntary organisation dedicated to supporting people with arthritis - is readying itself for another sixty years in the frontline of very real challenge.

'There was no NHS when Arthritis Care was founded in 1947. It worked to help people to understand arthritis, to alleviate the pain, isolation, and disability it caused, and to support them towards self-management of what is a long-term and as-yet incurable condition,' said Neil Betteridge, Arthritis Care's chief executive.

'Today, we have almost come full circle. There is an NHS but there is still no cure for arthritis. And there is a worrying new sense that people with arthritis are once again on their own - there is much talk of healthcare rationing, the postcode lottery, and cutbacks to the health professions who serve people with arthritis.'

'At the same time, the speed of health service reform means that Arthritis Care is no less vital to people with arthritis in 2007 than it was sixty years ago. People still need support, and signposting to services, and they need more help than ever in getting their voices heard.'

The message of this year's Arthritis Care Awareness Week is therefore Much done; much still to do.

'Today we can look back with pride on many achievements, particularly Arthritis Care's pioneering of self-management training, its campaigning, its award winning information, and its development of services for children and young people with arthritis. But we cannot afford to slacken now - we must keep campaigning for equal access to NHS care and treatment, keep championing the rights of people with arthritis, and be vigilant in our efforts to ensure that rheumatology is not a Cinderella service in future, but one designed to cope with increasing demands,' said Neil Betteridge.

Arthritis Care was founded in 1947 by Arthur Mainwaring Bowen as the British Rheumatic Association. Aged 25, and an undergraduate at Aberystwyth University, 'Waring' as he was known, had developed inflammation in his foot which spread to his spine. It was ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis five times more common in men than women.

His widow Helen says: 'Waring was always very conscious of the isolation felt by people in his position and this is what led him to form an association for people with rheumatism. When I look at how many people have benefited from Arthritis Care, I'm very glad he did.'

People like the many callers to Arthritis Care's free helplines, or this 40 year old man who wrote in:

'I was looking up your web site about arthritis. I was badly bullied as a child and had my feet stamped on a few times and now after thirty years I am suffering from osteoarthritis in my big toes. I am in pain all the time and need a walking stick to help support me as I walk, as they have the habit of locking up and I can fall down. I am waiting to see an Orthopaedic Surgeon and god knows when that will be, and I am getting sick of waiting as the thought of cutting my feet off has crossed my mind a few times in the last few years. I can't do the things I love to do like work and hill walking now as I am in too much pain.'

www.arthritiscare.org.uk

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