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Kids get arthritis too!  

My son Max was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis (JIA) in September 2017 after a 10 day stay in hospital.  An active and energetic 9 year old at the start of August, by the end of the month he was unable to walk, his feet, knees, toes, hands,  wrists and fingers had swollen to three times the normal size, he cried in pain all the time and had lost a lot of weight.  Following a year of tests including ultrasounds, mris, eye checks, bloods, bone marrow biopsy, heart echo, endoscopy and a series of treatments including anti inflammatories, steroid injections under general anaesthetic, oral steroids, steroid infusions, chemotherapy by weekly injection  and biologic by fortnightly injection he is more or less back to normal.  He will continue with his current treatment regime for several years.  He finds the frequent injections stressful and upsetting (he tells me he hates his life)   He now ‘likes’ having bloods taken (rather than having to be held down).   He feels isolated and low some of the time (most of the time he is back to his goofy self).  He feels different to his friends (how can they understand when he ‘looks fine’ on the outside).  He is stronger and we are stronger now but he and all the 1 in a 1000 kids from 18 months and up who are affected by this in the UK could have been facing a very different future without research into treatments..  Think wheelchairs (full or part time), crutches, multiple joint replacements, extended periods in hospital, blindness....

I am grateful if you would like to support me in fundraising for Versus Arthritis, to support Max and others like him.