by Debbie Wilson, NRAS
I am the new Young Persons Project Co-Ordinator at NRAS. I come to this role with a very personal experience of JIA. I have had JIA nearly all my life and a few years ago my daughter was diagnosed with it too. Thankfully, due to medical advances, the disease can be easier to manage. Unfortunately, some things have not changed: mainly the lack of understanding and awareness of JIA. There is still the stigma of having JIA and I was quite shocked that my daughter got the same comments I used to get, such as: “my granny has that”; “that’s an old person’s disease”; “you are too young to get arthritis.”…
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