My interest in pain and it's effect on the whole life began when, as a teenager, I started to get migraines. It was a big shock to me just how much they affected every area of my life - time with family, time with friends, even my school work. Migraines run in my family, so after being 'reassured' by my grandmother that they would only last until the menopause (only another 40 years to go!) I resigned myself to taking medication which made me sleepy and withdrawn. It was only after a car accident made my migraines much more frequent that I went to see a chiropractor... and it changed my life. The relief was unbelievable! So I decided that after university I would retrain as a chiropractor and help to change other people's lives too.
Whilst at the AECC I learned about the complex nature of pain as part of my training, and it caused a huge paradigm shift for how I understood injury, treatment and the role of the brain. Ever since, it's formed the mainstay of my ongoing learning and I've jumped at every opportunity to talk to people about it. This means I'm a passionate public speaker but a terrible dinner guest ("Julia, we're eating, stop talking about pain!") and I'm thrilled that the Flippin Pain campaign have asked me to be involved in spreading the message further.

Please donate to Pain Concern, who have been a wonderful support to the whole team on this ground-breaking tour!