I am a sufferer with fibromyalgia and until I was diagnosed with this disease I knew little to nothing about it.

This is something that affects my day-to-day living and walk with crutches. I'm lucky if I can manage more than 500 steps in a day. Lately I have been battling and pushing and have managed more. My goal is to become more self sufficient and mobile.

What is fibro?

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome affecting the central nervous system, although relatively unknown it is actually a very common condition thought to affect over 1 million people in the UK alone. Getting a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia a is difficult as there are no blood tests to indicate its presence so we often find that our Dr will rule out other conditions first, due to this, it can take a long time to get a diagnosis.

Fibromyalgia has over 200 symptoms and overlapping conditions, Fibromyalgia is not a progressive condition but as new symptoms or overlapping conditions develop it can feel like it is getting worse, some of the most common symptoms include:

Chronic pain

Muscle Spasms

Fatigue

Depression

Anxiety

IBS

Insomnia

Headaches or migraines

Plantar Fascitis

Fibro Fog – lack of concentration and focus, poor memory

Fibromyalgia is thought to be triggered by trauma, this can be one major event such as car accident or sudden bereavement, but it can also be a build up of trauma over many years, bullying at school, being the family outcast, breakdown of relationships, abusive relationships, mental, physical or sexual abuse, difficult childbirth and eventually the build-up of these in our system will eventually trigger our Fibromyalgia. The current ratio of Fibromyalgia is 7 women to 1 man but more men are coming forward, so this figure is likely to change, there have also been reported instances of juvenile Fibromyalgia.

So if you could give ANYTHING no matter how little I would appreciate it <3

All donations go directly to the charity.