This year I have decided to run Edinburgh half marathon.

Rox was diagnosed with Juvenile idiopathic Arthritis in September 2023. There were absolutely no signs until one morning out the blue at 18 months old he could barely weight bare on his feet or couldn’t walk without a limp. We spent 9 weeks back and forth to hospital, hospital admissions, countless blood tests, scans, X-rays, IV antibiotics, seeing all different specialists when he was finally diagnosed with JIA. By the time he was diagnosed, things had gotten worse.

A week after diagnosis we were sent to Edinburgh sick kids to be put to sleep to have joint injections done, he was also started on weekly injections of methotrexate to try and manage it. Initially it appeared to work but over Christmas 2023 things were flaring up again, he went back for more joint injections in January 2024. The decision was also made to add in 4 weekly IV infusions in addition to the weekly injections to help manage his JIA.

He is still on all his treatment and so far it’s all working well to keep his joints working the way they should, they enable him to be the crazy active boy he is.

Rox is honestly an absolute trooper and this is all he really knows now being poked prodded with needles every week, and constant visits to hospital but he takes every single bit of it in his stride. He has a lot of hard days but he just gets on with it and if he can do and go through everything he does then I can run a half marathon (even if it does kill me off) to raise awareness for something I didn’t even know existed 2 years ago.

My little arthritis warrior 👏🏼❤️

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