Evan

"I am bursting with pride to let you know that my son Evan has today been announced as a National Winner of the BBC Young reporter Competition. He is going to be filming his JIA journey for Newsround"

When eleven year old Evan was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) on Christmas eve last year, little did his family realise that less than a year later, Evan's life would change beyond recognition. 

Evan was unable to walk unaided when he was first diagnosed with JIA but with treatment and support from his rheumatology hospital team, Evan was able to get back to doing the thing he loves most... football. 

Earlier in the year, we received a message from Evans mum to tell us that Evan had been shortlisted out of 17,000 entries for the BBC Young Reporter competition.  She told us that "We don’t know if he will win the competition but either way we are so proud of him for getting this far and for turning his JIA experience into something so positive."

We were so excited that Evan had been shortlisted. He'd already been raising awareness in his school using our WORD day pack bookmarks, posters and stickers, so we were incredibly proud of him for all he was doing to raise awareness of JIA. 

But we had to keep our lips sealed at the time until all of the judging stages were completed. So you can imagine our delight to hear from Lisa, Evan's mum, a couple of months later to tell us "I am bursting with pride to let you know that my son Evan has today been announced as a National Winner of the BBC Young reporter Competition. He is going to be filming his JIA journey for Newsround."

And so Evan's whirlwhind of a journey continued with filming for Newsround as well as several radio interviews and receiving a very special message from England footballer, James Madison. 

Evan received one of our Little Box of Hope packs and his family told us " It made his day especially as it arrived when he was having an infusion at home - such a lovely gift."

Evan's report for Newsround was aired recently and can be seen here: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/67262071

Evan you are truly an inspiration! 

If you would like to share your JIA story, please get in touch.

If you are concerned that a child or young person may have JIA and would like to know more, please visit www.thinkJIA.org

For support at school, please visit our Parent Zone. Schools can request an information toolkit to support children and young people with JIA in their setting at www.jarproject.org/toolkit 

Many of the resources we have developed can support children and young people at school and with explaining their condition to others such as our "I have JIA" cards. You can access these here.

For support with Mental health and needle phobia, please see our Mental health and wellbeing page here.  

You can also help us be there to make life better for children and families affected by JIA by supporting our work at www.jarproject.org/fundraising