Second guest blog

This week is Arthritis Care Awareness Week so Jane Spence, Media Relations Manager at Arthritis Care, has written aguest blog. This should give Sarah’s followers a better understanding of her motivations for the row and the invaluable work the charity do in order to improve the lives of people with the disease.

 

Today is the beginning of Arthritis Care Awareness Week across the UK – but, half a world away, Arthritis Care Awareness Week is also making waves in the Indian Ocean where Sarah is carrying our message down under!  As Dippers plunges onwards and the rollers slosh over the Arthritis Care logo proudly emblazoned on the boat, everyone here at Arthritis Care is a stowaway in spirit, delighted that Sarah’s epic coincides with Arthritis Care Awareness Week.

 

As Sarah explains in her latest Podcast, she picked us as her charity because she grew up alongside rheumatoid arthritis.  Whilst everyone’s favourite mariner didn’t have the painful and disabling condition herself, her late father Derek grappled with the disease for most of Sarah’s young life.  She explains:

 

“I have dedicated my row to the memory of my Dad, Derek Outen. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly in 2006 having suffered appalling ill health due to rheumatoid arthritis for nearly 20 years. It is a horrible, devastating disease and affects folk of all ages, in various manifestations. Anyone that has seen a relative suffering chronic pain and illness knows the draining, sickening, gut wrenching feeling of seeing someone they love degenerating, weakened by a seemingly unstoppable force”.

 

So that’s why Sarah’s supporting Arthritis Care – because this organisation exists solely to speak up for and support people like Derek as they work to prevent arthritis taking over their lives.  Knowledge is power and Arthritis Care is here to offer the information, training, and support many people with arthritis need to come to terms with their diagnosis, to understand their condition, to manage it better, and to work with their doctors, nurses and physios in living life as fully and actively as possible. That’s why this year’s Arthritis Care Awareness Week message is ‘Take control of pain’ because, as anyone with arthritis knows, doing this can help reclaim great tracts of your life. One of the things we’ll be doing for Arthritis Care Awareness Week is offering our free ‘Challenging Pain’ course around the UK.

 

Pain, fatigue, mobility problems, and isolation are four major consequences of arthritis – a blanket term for some 200 conditions which involve inflammation of joints, tendons, or ligaments, often leading to irreversible joint damage. Around nine million people in the UK have arthritis, and it’s the country’s biggest single cause of physical disability. Including the family and loved ones involved in the vicious circle of physical and psychological effects, arthritis actually affects about 35 million people.

 

Such a common condition remains misunderstood by the general public.  Most of us think that arthritis is nothing more than wear-and-tear associated with ageing.  But it can affect babies, children, teens, as well as young men and women.  In severe cases, it can kill if not properly treated.  Thankfully, most forms are can be helped by drugs, surgery, and physiotherapy – or even by lifestyle changes like shedding excess weight or taking suitable exercise to strengthen muscles around damaged joints.  We don’t know what causes arthritis, and there’s still no cure, but there’s always something you can do to soften its impact.

 

That’s where Arthritis Care comes in. Arthritis Care is the UK’s largest organisation working with and for people who have any form of the disease.  A one-stop-shop for all your arthritis needs, Arthritis Care is proudly ‘user led’, meaning people with arthritis form our membership, are involved in all of our activities, and direct what we do.    

 

We help people to help themselves – and we’ve been doing it since 1947, before there was an NHS, so we know something about it.  We provide services like free Helplines, free-to-user courses like Challenging Pain where people can learn to ‘live smarter’ with arthritis and be more confident in managing their condition when the surgery door is closed.  

 

So that’s what we do and why we do it. Sarah is supporting us in a journey where pain, sleeplessness, fatigue and isolation comprise a fitting metaphor for life with arthritis where a positive attitude, the right support and training, and a determination to challenge is at the heart of the Arthritis Care message. 

 

As Sarah says, please help her to help us by visiting her Justgiving page and….. just giving!  And spread the message to anyone you know with arthritis that we’re here for them – call the free UK helpline on 0808 800 4050  or visit the website www.arthritiscare.org.uk for information or free forums.

This entry was posted in Blog. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Second guest blog

  1. Susie Hewson says:

    There are great champions that undertake amazing actions for the weak, determined individuals that give up their time and energy for the benefit of others, brave hearts, like Sarah who take on huge challenges to raise awareness and funds for less fortunate people and then there are we individuals that only need to open our hearts and make a donation from the comfort of our keyboards. Lets take on that great challenge and make Sarah’s efforts all the more valiant. Susie

  2. geoff says:

    Hi Sarah, just checking in after being away at a music Festival just out of Perth at the weekend. Good to see you still tracking for the trades.Also Jamie had his fundraising dinner last Friday and mentioned you as providing inspiration to him for his endeavors. Well done and keep it up.

  3. As our Honorary Natracare SISTER we have been keeping our fans up to speed with your campaign on our Facebook page Sarah as well as a link to the Arthritis Care site. We will continue to encourage them to support your cause by donating to this wonderful charity.
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natracare/55275672093

  4. Anna McCormack says:

    Hey Sarah!

    I just wanted to say a huge good luck!! You taught me hockey at SJS 5 years ago and you have always been so enthusiastic with whatever you do! You really boosted our confidence and I am speaking on behalf of all the old hockey team, you were the best coach we’ve ever had!!
    I wish you all the best of luck and I hope it all work out amazingly!

    Good Luck once again,

    Anna McCormack xxx

  5. Lina says:

    Good morning Sarah! just checked your tracker and noticed that you are tracking back a little.Can someone explain if it is due to the current or the weather?
    Keep it up Sarah…. spoke to Marcel ( in Mauritius) and is looking forward to see you rowing in the Mauritian waters, with a huge and warm welcome.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *