Hey everyone!

Whether your aware or not, but i've suffered from juvenile arthritis for the last 10 years. When I was first diagnosed with the illness aged 12, my consultants couldn't find a medication for me that worked, and for two years I was in and out of hospital as regularly as the people that worked there. I missed around a year and a half of school and was pretty much house bound from 12 to 14. It was fooking awful. 

But the real pisser was 3 weeks before i fell ill I was selected to represent England for the first time in France playing badminton. I weren't that bothered about being off school but to play badminton everyday for about 4 years and start to realise your dreams of playing for your country at the highest level and to have that taken away from me was a right c u next tuesday. Anywho, a year and a half progressed and while in hospital by doctor tells me that researchers have come up with a brand new drug that could benefit me and hopefully control my arthritis. It was an experimental drug and I was 1 in 5 children in the whole country to be given it. It was privately funded and had never been tried before. Little did I know that this medication would completely transform my life for the better. However I was one of a few that was successful. 8 years later and except for a dodgy knee and elbow that wont straighten properly and being slighty fragile from time to time, i've been able to live a completely normal life. I owe all of this to my doctor and the arthritis research campaign. If it werent for these people then i'd be like the duck.

I'm running the Brighton marathon on Sunday 18th April 2010 and its always a thing thats been on my to do list, and doing for a charity that means so much to me makes it even more special and makes a perfect toasted sandwich. I hope to do it under 4 hours but when you hit that wall it all goes to pieces.

I thought i'd write my appeal in this way as hopefully you might think twice about donating some money for charity instead of giving it a swift bore off. I was contemplating saying 'i've got arthritis so gimmie ya money you filthy animal' but decided to go for the slightly sincere if not sympathetic approach. I haven't got an exact figure of which I want to raise but I think 1k is a good place to start, so even if you could give a small amount of money thats better than nothing and every penny would be put to good use. Even if you can't be arsed to donate, I hope this email raises awareness of a crippling disease that affects thousands of kids in the U.K and not just fat and old people, and maybe you might donate later on.

Thanks Sean x

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