Somewhat against my better judgement, I’m doing the Birmingham Half-Marathon on Sunday in aid of the Addison’s Disease Self-Help Group. The group carries out a range of patient support and medical awareness raising activities. It’s a rare condition (fewer than 10,000 people in the UK have it) with the result that many GPs never see a case and most will not see more than one or two in their career. This has two consequences: (i) diagnosis is difficult and often missed (sometimes until the disease reaches dangerous levels) – hence the need for medical awareness raising; and (ii) as with many chronic conditions, the patient will often know more than their GP and needs to take ownership of managing their condition – hence the need for patient support.

How did I come to be involved? My wife is national chair and – in an unguarded moment a year or so ago – I said that if ever they couldn’t fill the charity places they’d taken in an event, I would be willing to take on anything up to about a half-marathon with fairly limited notice. On this particular occasion, however, that limited notice is coupled with somewhat limited training over the last couple of months due to a calf strain, so I’m not at all sure how this is going to go… wish me luck…

So many thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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The Addison's Disease Self-Help Group do a great job of patient support and medical awareness raising for this rare endocrine condition.  Your donation will be well used.