Why is Perthes Awareness Month so important?

My name is Leo, I am 7 years old and I have been diagnosed with Perthes disease. From the moment we found out I was told I needed to stop any kind of activities that could cause impact and potential further damage to my hip.  This means I have had to stop playing sports!  I absolutely love Golf and Football and used to play both many times each week, so stopping this has been very hard.  I can't even run in the playground with my friends at school!

For those who don't know, Perthes disease or Legg-Calve-Perthes disease as it is sometimes known, is a rare childhood condition that affects the hip. The blood supply to the hip bone is disrupted, causing bone cells to die, which erodes the hip and causes pain in the process.

Unfortunately, medical agreement on the best way to treat Perthes has not yet been reached. It is treated in various ways ,but pain management remains a key-issues faced by many children.  At times, parents are told to “wait and see” to enable the doctors to assess how to best treat their child’s condition. As the condition is not well known, it could occur that the child is not correctly diagnosed with Perthes disease leaving the hip to erode resulting in an odd shape. 

The effects of Perthes into adulthood are still very much unknown. Doctors have very limited information on how many adults require a hip replacement (if any) and if the disease has had long term consequences on their daily activities. 

'Steps' want to change this and support more awareness and research into Perthes disease and find the best way to diagnose and treat children. Please help them to fund more awareness and research and support families and adults impacted by the condition. We appreciate any amount you can kindly give, thank you x