Sixty years young: Arthritis Care Awareness Week 2007

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.'


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