I am running for Lupus UK, because my wife Gwen has been living with the immune system illness Lupus since being diagnosed ten/eleven years ago. Lupus is an uncommon, complex condition for which there is no cure as yet. It can affect any part of the body and can cause many different symptoms. 90% of lupus patients are female. It takes an average of seven years to diagnose. Men and young children are also affected by lupus. 

It causes the body's immune system to go into overdrive and start to attack itself in many different ways. The symptoms are many and varied and the illness often seems to mimic other diseases. This gives rise to difficulty in diagnosis and the condition can be overlooked, sometimes for years, unless the GP or consultant is alert to the possibility of lupus. Achieving an early diagnosis of lupus allows a better opportunity for control of the disease. These symptoms can range from extreme fatigue and joint/muscle pain to problems with major organs.

Although Gwen started off with the fatigue and joint pain, the lupus is now at an aggressive stage and is attacking the lining of her heart, her lungs, her kidneys and also her brain, resulting in a stroke in Feb 2012 from which she has never fully recovered. She has several lesions on her brain which have affected her memory, speech and mobility.

Lupus UK is the national charity that helps those people with lupus. It's priorities are to give support to it's diagnosed members, increase public awareness about lupus and it's impact on patients and families and to maximise fundraising income, thereby increasing research into this life threatening and debilitating disease.   

I wish to help increase public awareness about Lupus as many people haven't heard of it, or if they have, don't know what it is.

I also wish to help in raising much needed funds for a little known charity to help increase research into the causes of Lupus and maybe one day find a cure!              

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