People like us: everyday marathon for nine million

Unscrewing the lid of a coffee jar, wearing fashionable shoes, opening heavy doors, tying laces, having sex, applying make-up, playing schoolyard footie – these are just some of the simple everyday activities which require a marathon effort from many of the nine million Britons of all ages who live with arthritis.

Marking World Arthritis Day 2007 (12 Oct), Arthritis Care is today launching a special campaign called People Like Us to highlight how small things can have a big impact on the lives of those with arthritis – everyday things in the home, around town, at college, and in the workplace. And today, Arthritis Care also issues a challenge to British industry: design better products if you value the growing business of people like us.

As part of the campaign, 13 people with arthritis have made video diaries showing how their lives are hindered by small things which others manage without thinking, such as opening a milk carton, taking the stairs or hopping on a bus.

‘People with arthritis are citizens and consumers, yet these diaries reveal their life is an obstacle course, full of hurdles to be negotiated. We’re issuing a challenge today. We want designers, employers and planners to sit up, take notice, and take action. Nine million people have arthritis – and we’re telling manufacturers to think harder and more creatively about making products that work for everyone, including us. After all, we’re big spenders too. And the "arthritis pound" is worth a bob or two,’ said Arthritis Care's head of policy and campaigns Abigail Page.

‘What’s more, these diaries blast open the stereotype that arthritis is only about aches and getting older. It’s all about people like us – and the diaries show it. There’s a football-mad 9-year-old boy speaking for 12,000 British children with juvenile arthritis, a young college student who can’t carry her library books, a six-foot four ex-rugby player who needs a special lightweight pram just to push his new baby. Their stories are insights into the struggle of nine million Brits who live with serious pain, yet still get up and go, get up and do, go out and buy’, she added.

Take Jack: he’s football crazy, but he can only play because his mother gives him an injection once a week. His arms are bruised and sore; the jab makes him feel sick; and the ritual upsets mother and son. But it is the price paid for Jack to get on with his life.

Or take 21-year-old uni student Rosie: she spends hours filling in paperwork to get social support, but everything is geared towards people of 80.  She’s often too tired to go out with her mates – and they don’t understand how someone her age can have arthritis. She gets daggers on the bus for not giving up her seat to older people. ‘People think arthritis is just aching joints, but they forget the sickness, the tiredness, the pain. And the public needs to know more about the disease – they need to understand what it is, and what it means to have it,’ says Rosie.

‘Arthritis can affect the very young. But it is also common in middle and later life. In an aging workforce and population, Arthritis Care’s campaign aims to highlight the fact that musculoskeletal disabilities are increasing and must be addressed urgently by doctors, employers, designers and planners. It's a personal and social time-bomb which society has to confront.  Much could be done to lessen the impact of arthritis – and what could be done should be done, a lot more energetically, and that’s why we're campaigning today,’ said Abigail Page

Take a look at some of the People Like Us video diaries by visiting 
http://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/peoplelikeus

Notes to Editors

Arthritis is the UK’s biggest single cause of physical disability, affecting around nine million people. Arthritis Care, established in 1947 and currently celebrating its Diamond Jubilee, is the UK’s largest voluntary organisation committed to supporting people with arthritis. .

Arthritis Care predates the NHS by one year and has always pioneered self management courses in the UK. It works to represent people with arthritis and to lobby decision-makers in their name. It has over 300 branches UK-wide, a free information helpline, produces a range of information booklets plus the award-winning Arthritis News, and it actively campaigns locally, nationally and internationally for people with arthritis.
As a service to those affected by arthritis, if possible please mention the free Arthritis Care helpline and website with free downloadable resources in any item that you may do.
 
Arthritis Care free helpline: 0808 800 4050, open 10am-4pm weekdays

Website: www.arthritiscare.org.uk

Press office: 0207 380 6551

For more information on World Arthritis Day visit : www.worldarthritisday.org