It is the year 2013, I’m 20-years-old and two years away from getting my arthritis diagnosis. Lying in bed at university, with swollen fingers and thumbs, I am absolutely exhausted and suffering terribly with what feels like the flu. Unbeknownst to me, my immune system is attacking itself underneath the surface and overproducing fluid that is being deposited in my joints. My tongue is covered in white spots, and no GP can tell me what is going on.

Arthritis is not something belonging to your grandparent, there’s over 100 different types and it can manifest in numerous ways, such as in the form of an autoimmune disease.

I used to fantasise about having a hand transplant with someone with no arthritis so that I could have hands that weren’t swollen, painful or stiff and stationary like statues when I woke up. That could function properly. Elbows that would let my arm move normally. Ankles that didn’t hurt after a half an hour walk around the block. Or a knee that didn’t make me feel like a 90-year-old woman. A body that didn’t constantly need sleep, that didn’t need blood tests, x-rays and ultrasounds. I hated all of it. At the beginning, I didn’t have anything or anyone to turn to other than my mum because I was so embarrassed and angry at my own body…

FAST FORWARD several medications later, lots of books, scientific research, a change of lifestyle and diet as tracked through @arthritisfoodie, meeting people who are going through the same thing… And I’m in a good place.

BUT I WISH that someone had given me the answers 7 years ago. I wished that there has been a book that I could have read to help myself to manage my symptoms. Backed up by science. Backed up by someone’s experience. Backed up by health experts. There wasn’t.

SO IN APRIL 2019 I STARTED WRITING THE BOOK I WISHED I’D HAD with the hope that it will help people who are going through the same thing I did. That they feel less alone and get the support they need from not just me, but experts too: rheumatologists, doctors, nutritionists, immunologists, physiotherapists, and more.

And this is what Beat Arthritis Naturally: Supercharge your health with 65 recipes and lifestyle tips from Arthritis Foodie is… the book I wish I had had at the start of my journey. Everything you need to know about living well with arthritis, researched and simplified for all of us.

Learn more about the book here, and pre-order on Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith and more.