Ricky OLeary

My arthritis journey

I'm not one for sob stories. But this is something I've been aiming to do for years, raise money for arthritis research. And not everyone knows I either have arthritis, or at one time in my life had arthritis severely. So here's a quick run down of my life with arthritis...

As someone who has lived with arthritis since I was four years old, and who was lucky enough to grow up in a generation where arthritis medication could genuinely change lives, I want to give something back.

I remember sitting in waiting rooms with other children, being told I had juvenile arthritis and would grow out of it, only for it to come back time and time again. Watching what this disease did to the generation before me, seeing the impact it had on their bodies over time, and understanding early on what it could do if left unchecked. I was a guinea pig in many ways. I was offered medications with long lists of risks and side effects, including some that doctors couldn't fully understand at the time.

From being pushed around in a pram long after I should have been walking, to sitting in school assemblies because I couldn’t comfortably sit cross-legged like the other children, there were some difficult years for me. Difficult for me, yes, but even more so for my family.

After a range of experimental drugs, the age of which it should have disappeared came, 16. Unfortunately it continued to return despite changes in medication and treatment plans. It was a constant part of life for years, adapting and adjusting, but never fully going away. I remember not even being able to lift a cup, I remember crawling and having to lift myself up using a sink to get to the toilet. I now consider myself reasonably ambidextrous because my left elbow has permanent damage (not great when you're left handed)! I remember a lot of bad things - but life is now good. It wasn’t until I was around 35 that I began to notice a real shift in my body. I still get the odd twinge now and then, but I am currently medication free.

Looking back now as a parent, I think less about what it was like for me and more about what it must have been like for my mum. She carried so much of it. Countless trips to London hospitals for weekend stays, years of Friday physiotherapy appointments without fail, and even having to inject me weekly herself when that was the only option. Being asked to make impossible decisions about her child's future. Choosing between uncertainty and certainty. Being told myself it was very unlikely I would be able to have children, as it would mean coming off the medication. Yet here I am, married, with two kids.

This is for the little boy who could barely walk. It's for the advances in research and medication that changed my life. And it's for everyone still fighting this disease today.

This run is about much more than crossing a finish line.

When I cross that finish line, I want to turn around, look back at everything arthritis tried to take from me, and know that it didn't win. I want to leave the past where it belongs, celebrate the progress that has made my life possible, and show that things which once seemed impossible can become reality.

So, please, I never ask a lot but if you can, donate. I thank you!