Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive and disabling auto-immune disease affecting 0.8% of the UK adult population. It is an incredibly painful condition, can cause severe disability (this varies between individuals and depends on how severe/aggressive your disease is) and ultimately affects a person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks. The disease can progress very rapidly (again the speed of progression varies widely between individuals), causing swelling and damaging cartilage and bone around the joints. Any joint may be affected but it is commonly the hands, feet and wrists. It is a systemic, disease which means that it can affect the whole body and internal organs (although this is not the case for everyone with RA) such as the lungs, heart and eyes.