Arthritis: Youth can't protect you

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Arthritis: Youth can't protect you

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100830/LIFE/708299982/119\

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August 30. 2010

Aching backs, hands and hip joints are only ever found in the elderly,

right? Arthritis is certainly often dismissed as a disease that only

afflicts older people, the assumption being that as a degenerative joint

disease, it only plagues those northwards of a certain age.

But that's not so, says Katrina Thornely, the British Patient Support

Director of the Emirates Arthritis Foundation, who is currently on a push to

raise awareness for the foundation following its recent move into a new home

at Dubai's Al Biraa Bone and Joint Clinic.

Katrina herself is a life-long sufferer of a particular strain of the

disease - chronic juvenile arthritis, or JCA.

" I'm not an old person; I've had it since I was two, " she explains from her

bright new office on Al Wasl Road. " And then people say 'So what's the big

deal? It only affects your fingers,' and you then have to reply 'Well

actually, it can stop you walking, put you in a wheelchair and leave you

bedridden.' "

Now 28, Thornely has suffered severely with her arthritis. Her mother

realised something was up when Thornely was a toddler and struggled to

crawl, so she took her to a doctor, and from there to a consultant. Thornely

was diagnosed with JCA, but it seemed to go into remission for several

years. She returned to the doctor again, however, when she was nine with

renewed pain in her wrists and with problems being able to straighten her

arms. The disease also affected the development of her jaw, which she says

caused a " very round and chubby face " and so meant bullying at school.

Since then, Thornely has had the bones in her feet fused to help her improve

her mobility, her wrists fused with titanium, and she remains on heavy

medication - anti-inflammatories, biologic drugs that work by blocking the

arthritic degeneration further, and ibuprofen to dull the pain.

Not that you'd know any of this from Thornely's irrepressibly sunny

demeanour.

Anyone trying to raise awareness about arthritis, however, has had a tough

time doing so during the recession. Dr Humeira Badsha, one of the Biraa

clinic's doctors and an arthritis specialist, says that 20 per cent of

people in the UAE suffer some form of arthritis, and there are approximately

100 types among them. The most common is osteoarthritis, which affects

primarily older adults, whereas JCA is much rarer.

Thornely, for one, is hoping that recent attention in the celebrity press

about the disease may help spur people on to greater understanding and

support. The revelation came from none other than Lady Gaga, who said in an

interview with The Times in May that she had tested " borderline positive "

for lupus, a particular type of arthritis that damages the autoimmune system

and doesn't only affect joints, but can also cause skin rashes, mouth

ulcers, hair loss, eye problems and, in the most extreme cases, organ

failure.

Thornely says she's hoping that Gaga's forthrightness will help to raise

much-needed funds (it can cost up to Dh85,000 for a year's worth of drugs

per patient) and awareness about arthritis in general.

Apart from trying to stamp out ignorance of the condition, Thornely is

concerned with general day-to-day events for the foundation. They hold

weekly yoga sessions ( " We encourage patients to be active; if you don't use

it, you lose it, " she says with a smile), and regular coffee mornings for

those who attend the clinic.

" It can be frustrating, " she says. " Sometimes you get one person showing up,

sometimes 15. " But optimistic as ever, she says the hope is to hold a larger

fundraising event towards the end of this year.

It's a cause that deserves much support.

For more information on arthritis, visit the Emirates Arthritis Foundation

website at www.arthritis.ae.