In the news:
Our commitment to raising awareness of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA)

We’re very pleased to have been featured in last night’s ITV Meridian East news programme, where Maddison and her mum Zoe shared their JIA story. The piece also featured part of our new film Arthritis isn’t just for adults made by talented young film maker Alicia. You can see the full version of that film on our videos page.

Our founder Richard was also interviewed to explain some of the challenges that children with JIA experience when receiving a diagnosis. 

We’ve always been passionate about raising awareness since we started the charity just 8 years ago. During that short time we have already made a big impact and, together with your help, we are changing the lives of those with JIA. Improved awareness leads to earlier diagnosis and better outcomes for children.

What is particularly important about last night’s news programme is that it has reached new audiences who would have not been aware previously that arthritis can affect children. Whilst a lot of our support work is amongst the JIA community, getting the important awareness message to a wider audience is absolutely vital. 

We want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Maddison and Zoe and their family, as well as to ITV News for this excellent awareness-raising piece. We know many of you have also been supporting our awareness work throughout this year, so a big thank you to you as well.

The piece remains live on the ITV News YouTube channel for up to 24 hours after initial broadcast, and can be seen here.