Celebrities with arthritis
With 20 books under her belt and more to come, Martina Cole has taken control of her rheumatoid arthritis
Martina Cole’s page-turning crime novels have made her one of the most successful British female novelists of all time. Gritty plotlines tackle London’s underworld and have achieved sales of over ten million books; Martina’s twentieth book – Revenge – looks set to storm bestseller lists around the world this Autumn.
Less well-known is that Martina has a daily battle with rheumatoid arthritis, triggered when she broke her arms after falling off a swing as a child, and diagnosed when she was 21 years old. At the time her son, Christopher, was a baby and Martina had three jobs… and was a long way from the comfort of the fame she has since acquired. Continue reading
TV presenter and journalist, Aggie MacKenzie, has learned to live with her rheumatoid arthritis
Ever since How Clean Is Your House swept onto our screens in 2003, Aggie MacKenzie has been a household name. In only 10 years she has appeared in around 30 TV shows, written five books and is a regular columnist in Good Housekeeping, Sainsbury’s magazine, Best and Delicious.
Perhaps it is her “Highland stock” that holds her back from complaining about being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when in her 20s.
“I still remember the sense of devastation when the doctor told me,” she says. “Pain in my hands had made me go – and a blood test confirmed my suspicions.” Continue reading
