Lisa Heald

Patients with a type of arthritis affecting people from their teens and 20s are being given a new lease of life thanks to an intense exercise class run at Barnet Hospital. The training sessions, which are run by physiotherapists, help people with axial spondyloarthritis, also known as axial SpA, which over time can cause bones to fuse together, resulting in severe pain – most often in the back. The sessions are run by Nahid Islam, a specialist physiotherapist, who said that because the patients are engaged and enthusiastic, they often see really positive results. He said: “One of the aims of the class is to empower patients to trust their body again through exercise and to learn how to exercise independently learning what works for them and what doesn’t work for them." Shanice Gidigbi, 29, from Edgware, said she started experiencing excruciating back pain when she was just 20 years old and at university. She said: “I knew the pain wasn’t normal, but I didn’t know what to do. I was away from home; my friends didn’t really understand and at the beginning I just tried to manage it with over-the-counter painkillers but the pain always came back. I did see a GP, but they referred me for physiotherapy and that had no effect. I didn’t push at the time, even though I was sure the stabbing pain wasn’t muscular. I was young and didn’t know how to advocate for myself.” An estimated 1 in 200 people are believed to have axial SpA but it often takes years for someone to receive a diagnosis, which means patients can spend a long time living with unnecessary debilitating pain. Sian Bamford, the advanced practice physiotherapist who initiated the classes, said: “Our new exercise group for patients with axial SpA is one of the ways we are working to improve the quality of care we give to our patients. We’re also working very hard with GPs and colleagues in our hospitals to improve the identification of patients with the condition as on average it takes eight-and-a-half years for patients to get a diagnosis and we want to speed that up.”