A new podcast about arthritis - starring you!

BJG

Dear All,

I’m starting a podcast about arthritis and I need your voices to help bring it to life. 

A freelance science/health filmmaker in my early 50s, last year I was diagnosed with severe arthritis and you and this forum have been an invaluable source of understanding, information and support. In fact, you gave me the idea!

By reading about your experiences, it’s helped me understand more about the huge variety of experiences we are all having of this thing called arthritis. It’s also made me incredibly curious about a whole world of subjects surrounding arthritis, from being diagnosed to relationships, from mental health to bleeding edge research. I’d also love to hear from you about areas you feel could and should be covered.

With your help, each podcast episode will explore a single area in which:

1. I share my own personal experiences (I’m going for hip resurfacing in the coming months).
2. Two or three guests - you - share your personal experiences.
3. I talk to researchers, doctors, or physios - whoever is most appropriate - about their expert insights into this area.
4. We try to have a little fun creating a resource for the many people out there who need support.

So, with your help, my plan is to create episodes that will have a specific focus, the first of which will be ‘Getting a diagnosis’, in which I’ll explore how we discovered we had arthritis and the immediate impact it had on us.

If you’d like to participate - it’s audio only and I’m completely happy to respect anonymity if you prefer - please get in touch with me, either via the forum or directly at barryjgibb@icloud.com. 

I’ll try and keep the interviews quite specific and short, say around 20 min, not only does this mean it’ll take less of your precious time but it’ll allow me to talk to far more of you about a whole range of different experiences.  

Thanks for reading, feel free to share my contact details and I hope we can talk soon!

Dr Barry J Gibb, barryjamesgibb.com

noddingtonpete

Hi this initiative is supported by us at Versus Arthritis, but please contract Barry directly either by private message or email if you would like to take part.

Peter (moderator)

frogmorton

What a great idea!

Janlyn

Brilliant idea!

ItsjustLisa

Good luck with this, it's a wonderful idea.

When I was diagnosed at 42 I noticed the lack of resources and support available, especially for younger people with arthritis. This forum has been incredibly valuable for me but there's very little otherwise which is quite telling when so many people are being diagnosed with arthritis and at a huge variety of ages.

BJG

Thanks so much for the support - I've already been contacted and looking forward to the first chat. To anyone who's on the fence, I'd encourage you to reach out. I've interviewed hundreds of people and the amazing thing is, almost universally, everyone thinks what they'd have to say would be too boring. I can assure you, there's nothing more powerful than another human being's personal experience.

ChrisG9

I had a really good chat with Barry last night and would like to publicly thank him for taking the time to listen to my story.

Good luck with the podcast :)

BJG

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/722242#Comment_722242

Thanks so much, Chris - it was great to talk to you - and now I've added The Muppet Christmas Carol to my movie list :)

To everyone out there, I'd love to talk to another person about their experience and in particular, when and how they received their diagnosis. One thing that's really struck me is that there's the time before you get diagnosed and then the time afterwards - a small moment in time that can be utterly life changing. How we receive that information feels so important.