Versus Arthritis

Last updated

Versus Arthritis
Founded2018 (tracing its origins to 1936)
Purpose"All of us pushing to defy arthritis"
Headquarters Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Location
  • United Kingdom
Website www.versusarthritis.org
Formerly called
Arthritis Research UK
Arthritis Care

Versus Arthritis is the United Kingdom's largest charity dedicated to supporting people with arthritis. It was launched in 2018, following the legal merger of the country's two leading arthritis charities, Arthritis Research UK and Arthritis Care in 2017. [1]

Contents

According to research, 10 million people in the UK are affected by arthritis. It affects almost three in 10 men and women over the age of 55. [2] Versus Arthritis works to help them to remain active by funding research, campaigning and providing information for patients, the public and health professionals.

History

Arthritis Care

Arthur Mainwaring Bowen founded the British Rheumatic Association (BRA) in February 1947 at the age of 25. By October, the association had 554 prospective members. [3] Bowen’s awareness of the needs of people with arthritis began when, at the age of 19, he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. Meeting other young people with arthritis during long stays in hospital opened Bowen’s eyes to the isolation they often felt. As well as his charity work, Bowen had a career as a qualified solicitor. He died in his home in 1980. [4]

By this time, the charity had grown into a national organisation with a wide range of services for people with arthritis and was renamed Arthritis Care. In that year, Arthritis News was published for the first time. It ran to 12 pages and had an initial print-run of 35,000. Jane Asher became president of Arthritis Care in 2003. [5]

At the time of the merger, Arthritis Care was the UK's largest arthritis charity and ran four national offices (one each in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) with activities coordinated by an office in London. The CEO was Judi Rhys. [6]

Arthritis Research UK

The Empire Rheumatism Council (ERC) was founded by Dr Will Copeman and other like-minded doctors on 10 February 1936 as a voluntary organisation to finance research into arthritis and all rheumatic diseases. It was incorporated in 1951 and changed its name to the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council for Research in Great Britain and the Commonwealth in 1964, which was shortened to the Arthritis Research Campaign in 1998, before becoming Arthritis Research UK in 2010 as part of a drive to raise the profile of both arthritis research and the organisation itself. [7] This also reduced the potential for confusion with a plethora of other charitable groups using the ARC initials.

The Canadian Arthritis Society, Australian Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation and New Zealand Rheumatism Association were affiliated organisations. [8]

Dr Stewart Adams, discoverer of Ibuprofen, opened the Arthritis Research UK Pain Centre, which investigates the mechanisms that lead to chronic pain in order to improve treatment, at the University of Nottingham in 2010. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthritis</span> Type of joint disorder

Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In some types of arthritis, other organs are also affected. Onset can be gradual or sudden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rheumatoid arthritis</span> Type of autoimmune arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involved, with the same joints typically involved on both sides of the body. The disease may also affect other parts of the body, including skin, eyes, lungs, heart, nerves, and blood. This may result in a low red blood cell count, inflammation around the lungs, and inflammation around the heart. Fever and low energy may also be present. Often, symptoms come on gradually over weeks to months.

Rheumatology is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, collectively known as rheumatic diseases, which includes many forms of arthritis as well as lupus and Sjögren's syndrome. Doctors who have undergone formal training in rheumatology are called rheumatologists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Showalter Hench</span> American physician (1896–1965)

Philip Showalter Hench was an American physician. Hench, along with his Mayo Clinic co-worker Edward Calvin Kendall and Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for the discovery of the hormone cortisone, and its application for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The Nobel Committee bestowed the award for the trio's "discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ankylosing spondylitis</span> Type of arthritis of the spine

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine, typically where the spine joins the pelvis. With AS, eye and bowel problems—as well as back pain—may occur. Joint mobility in the affected areas sometimes worsens over time. Ankylosing spondylitis is believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors. More than 90% of people affected in the UK have a specific human leukocyte antigen known as the HLA-B27 antigen. The underlying mechanism is believed to be autoimmune or autoinflammatory. Diagnosis is based on symptoms with support from medical imaging and blood tests. AS is a type of seronegative spondyloarthropathy, meaning that tests show no presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) antibodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rheumatism</span> Medical conditions affecting the joints or connective tissue

Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including arthritis and "non-articular rheumatism", also known as "regional pain syndrome" or "soft tissue rheumatism". There is a close overlap between the term soft tissue disorder and rheumatism. Sometimes the term "soft tissue rheumatic disorders" is used to describe these conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile idiopathic arthritis</span> Childhood rheumatic disease

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), formerly known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), is the most common chronic rheumatic disease of childhood, affecting approximately 3.8 to 400 out of 100,000 children. Juvenile, in this context, refers to disease onset before 16 years of age, while idiopathic refers to a condition with no defined cause, and arthritis is inflammation within the joint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polymyalgia rheumatica</span> Medical condition

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is a syndrome experienced as pain or stiffness, usually in the neck, shoulders, upper arms, and hips, but which may occur all over the body. The pain can be sudden or can occur gradually over a period. Most people with PMR wake up in the morning with pain in their muscles; however, cases have occurred in which the person has developed the pain during the evenings or has pain and stiffness all day long.

Palindromic rheumatism (PR) is a syndrome characterised by recurrent, self-resolving inflammatory attacks in and around the joints, and consists of arthritis or periarticular soft tissue inflammation. The course is often acute onset, with sudden and rapidly developing attacks or flares. There is pain, redness, swelling, and disability of one or multiple joints. The interval between recurrent palindromic attacks and the length of an attack is extremely variable from few hours to days. Attacks may become more frequent with time but there is no joint damage after attacks. It is thought to be an autoimmune disease, possibly an abortive form of rheumatoid arthritis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthritis Foundation</span> American nonprofit organization

The Arthritis Foundation is a nonprofit organization addressing the needs of people living with arthritis in the United States.

The American College of Rheumatology is an organization of and for physicians, health professionals, and scientists that advances rheumatology through programs of education, research, advocacy and practice support relating to the care of people with arthritis and rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology</span>

The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) formerly the European League Against Rheumatism is a European non-governmental organization which represents the people with arthritis/rheumatism, health professional and scientific societies of rheumatology of all the European nations.

BackCare is a British medical research charity organisation that provides services for the management of back problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Copeman</span>

William Sidney Charles Copeman was a British rheumatologist and a medical historian, best remembered for his contributions to the study of arthritic disease.

The Swedish Rheumatism Association is a non-profit organization working for people with rheumatic disorders. Rheumatism Association funds research in rheumatic diseases through Rheumatism Fund, which collects and administer gifts and donations from mainly private individuals. The Swedish Rheumatism Association has 200 local chapters, serviced by 24 regional branches. Rheumatism world is the association's own magazine in Swedish, published 6 times per year. It provides information about rheumatic diseases, coping strategies, health guides, exercise programs and news about scientific research for members of the association.

Stewart Sanders Adams was an English pharmacist, and bioengineer who was part of a team from Boots which developed the painkiller ibuprofen in 1961. Ibuprofen is now on the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines and is one of the world's best-selling drugs.

Arthritis Australia is a charitable not-for-profit organisation advocating for people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axial spondyloarthritis</span> Medical condition

Axial spondyloarthritis is a chronic, immune-mediated disease predominantly affecting the axial skeleton. The term itself is an umbrella term characterizing a diverse disease family united by shared clinical and genetic features, such as the involvement of the axial skeleton. The 2009 introduced term axial spondyloarthritis is a preferred term nowadays and substitutes the old term ankylosing spondylitis.

Arthur Charles Mainwaring Bowen was a Welsh solicitor who founded the charity "British Rheumatism & Arthritis Association".

Arthur Bowen may refer to:

References

  1. "New Arthritis charity launches following merger". 20 September 2018.
  2. YouGov Healthy Living Report 2010 Archived 17 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Hernaman-Johnson, F. (1947). "British Rheumatic Association". British Medical Journal. 2 (4525): 509. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4525.509-b. PMC   2055778 .
  4. Richard Gutch, 'Bowen, Arthur Charles Mainwaring (1922-1980)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  5. "Patron and President". Arthritis Care. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. Charity Times
  7. "Our history and achievements - Arthritis Research UK".
  8. Empire Rheumatism Council Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 1950;9:176 (online issue publication 2 May 2017)
  9. Pain Centre Versus Arthritis University of Nottingham (retrieved 24 May 2024)