Earlier this year, in the grips of the third national lockdown, my fiancee was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) following a painful few months that had impacted nearly every aspect of every day life. At the time we had no idea that it was any different to osteo arthritis and were confused how these pains that were moving around her body could be what we thought was arthritis... RA is an auto-immune disease, where your body quite literally starts to attack itself, moving from one part of the body to another - the pain can be so intense that it stops people from sleeping, moving around normally, even eating, and unfortunately Alia suffered all of these things during her first "flare". We went on a mission to understand the disease and tried to find out ways we could improve the situation and our research brought us to NRAS, who provided us with a wealth of information during a terrifying time. Thankfully Alia is out of her flare for the most part and this has been helped by the great advice around from small charities like NRAS.

RA is something that stays with you for your entire life, causing pain, fatigue, long-term joint damage and the medication available is almost as bad. As of now, no-one knows what exactly causes it and I think most people don't understand quite how terrible a disease it can be. I chose to raise money for The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) as they support all those living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to allow them to live their lives to the full.

For the 20 days from the 1st of August to the 20th, I will be moving myself either 20,000 steps each day or coving 20KM with a combination of cycling, walking, running, rowing and pretty much any other way I can move my body under its own steam. Please support and share if you can to help people live their best lives.

£290 allows NRAS to run the helpline for a day 

£500 allows NRAS to provide information booklets to 160 individuals living with RA or JIA 

£1000 allows NRAS to provide information booklets to 20 rheumatology units in the UK 

£1450 allows NRAS to manage helpline enquiries for a week 

Out of every £1 spent by NRAS, 82p is spent on delivering charitable activities to their beneficiaries and 18p is spent on raising each £1.
The breakdown of expenditure on charitable activities is as follows:
Provision of information and support 43%
Raising awareness 19%
Hosting NRAS events 19%
Hosting JIA events 19%

Visit their website at www.nras.org.uk

NRAS is changing minds, changing services, changing lives for people with RA and JIA