Community Fibro Warriors
Every Wednesday we highlight amazing Fibro Warriors, if you would like to take part please pop us a message.
We’re completely inclusive and here to support.
Introducing our weekly #WarriorWednesday, where we highlight fab Fibro Warriors from the UK community! For our second week we are featuring @katrinairapah_, a 23 year old blogger from London living with Fibromyalgia.
Via Instagram and her blog she aims to raise awareness, share her experience of both the ups and the downs of Chronic Pain, and spread positivity with her fellow Fibro Warriors!
"If you’re feeling down, isolated, confused, anxious or have any questions regarding any of my posts and Fibromyalgia please feel free to DM me anytime & I will be more than happy to offer my support in any way I can and answer any questions!"⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This #warriorwednesday we are highlighting the amazing @thefibropainchronicles ! Kristal is the Founder of The Fibromyalgia Pain Chronicles, Founder of Veteran Voices For Fibromyalgia and Founder of the National Alliance of Fibromyalgia Advocates.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Kristal an Army Veteran suffering with Fibromyalgia, and a Fibromyalgia and Veteran Advocate, Educator and Awareness Coordinator on behalf of the Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain and Veteran Communities. She helps Fibromyalgia/Veteran Communities better understand their illness, educate individuals on Patient Healthcare Rights, helps individuals apply for disability benefits, reviews best practices to advocate for their healthcare needs & promotes Fibromyalgia Understanding, Education and Awareness on social media.
As an Army Veteran, she advocates on behalf of Military Veterans diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain Conditions, PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as well.
Through Social Media, she helps connect individuals living with Fibromyalgia/Chronic Pain throughout the world, and helps them build up their online network of friends and support system. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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She serves as a Board of Trustee for the Fibromyalgia Care Society of America, a Co-op Patient Member at Savvy Cooperative, a member of Society For Participatory Medicine, a volunteer on the Cleveland Clinic Patient Panel, and a volunteer on VA Patient Discussion Panels among other endeavors. Way to go!!!
For this week's #warriorwednesday we are championing @misschronic_diaries, who gives an "unapologetically unfiltered" take on chronic illness, and makes us quite literally laugh through the pain! Jessica was just an ordinary 20 year old girl from Norwich until she was diagnosed with a suspected Viral Myositis attack in the winter of 2015. After multiple misdiagnoses, treatments and medications, Jessica was enlightened as to how little support there was to chronic illness sufferers and so actively campaigned to increased awareness of her conditions across the globe.
Through her Instagram and wit, she launched @spoonie.co.uk, a UK based fashion brand with products that are designed, manufactured and fulfilled with chronic illness sufferers in mind!
For this week's #warriorwednesday we are featuring renaissance woman @tamara.dowell, who is a Laguna Beach based writer, influencer agent, and wine lover recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (and kicking its butt!).
Read her inspirational, funny, and heartwarming message below:
"I’ve been on a mission to improve my health & control my stress (hard to do right now) since I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few months ago. It started in March, I thought I had Covid, I awoke every day with unfamiliar pain. It started in my arms at first just tingling, then I couldn’t raise them. Then my legs, I was having a hard time walking and kept falling, as my balance was off. I did google/Amazon canes (there are some very blinged out ones, good to know). I guess, it’s true...we don’t appreciate anything until it is gone, and health is no exception.
Supplements help, (I’m on many of those) & meds, diet also...I’ve cut out dairy, red meat (hard for an Iowa girl) gluten, alcohol 😫, BUT, what I changed the most is my attitude. After I was told this is brought on by stress, usually prolonged stress (single mom’s, hello). I’ve readjusted how I worry & stress over, what life brings my way.. We can’t control our environment, but we can control how we react to it. I was hesitant to tell anyone & to talk about it...then I realized, this is my pattern to hold everything inside, especially very personal things...Yesterday, I went to a spa, something I normally would worry about, should I spend money on myself? The answer is yes, whatever makes you feel better & reduces stress is a definite, YES! Wishing everyone good health & the skills to deal with life & all the stress that comes our way."
This week's #WarriorWednesday is chronic illness influencer, wellbeing coach, adventurer, and writer @katieemay1 ! Katie May is an ever inspiring ray of sunshine for chronic illness warriors around the world, and her Instagram, blog (link her bio), and e-books on wellbeing offer positive and helpful encouragements and anecdotes for the Fibromyalgia community. "You’ll normally find me either binge-watching medical drama’s, rewatching the Harry Potter films or curled up with a cup of tea and a good book. I love food and eating my way around the country and continuously buying books to add to my TBR pile."
For this week's #Fibrowarriorwednesday, we are featuring the lovely Rachel (@myjourneythroughfibro)!
Lincoln-based 21 year old Rachel empowers her fibro community with inspiring Instagram posts, staying positive through her health journey. She has been spreading awareness about Fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses since she was diagnosed, and definitely a #fibrowarrior worth following. We applaud you!!
For this #fibrowarrior wednesday, we are celebrating @hannah_rumsey, a Suffolk based designer maker living with Fibromyalgia. She explores medicinal natural dyes with biomordants for knitted and printed textiles, and shows us that chronic illnesses should not stop someone's creative spirit!
Check out her website and amazing work via the link in her bio!
his week's Fibro #warriorwednesday is Stephanie Szasz (@livinwithdogsandfibro)! 💜💜💜
Stephanie is passionate about dogs, natural living, camping, and natural oils! She tries not to let her Firbomyalgia get in the way of her passions, and is such an inspiration to our team at UK Fibromyalgia Magazine. Keep being you Steph!💜⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This week's #FibroWarriorWednesday is @fibromyalgiatips. Phoebe Azario aims to provide healing tools for anyone with fibromyalgia and chronic pain, and is truly an inspiration !
"In 2014 I developed pain in my right hip following a trauma that I was not brave enough to disclose to even my closest friends and family. The pain spread and by 2019 it covered my entire body. I saw dozens of doctors who often told me that the pain was in my head. I was prescribed oxycodone which I took for about a year. If you have chronic pain you may also have been prescribed oxycodone or similar medications and will know how intense and addictive these ‘medications’ are! I eventually came across fibromyalgia through my own research and finally had an answer to my pain. I changed my diet, my lifestyle and sought support for my mental health. A huge part of healing has been accepting this condition and even being grateful for it."
Introducing our weekly #WarriorWednesday, where we highlight fab Fibro Warriors from the UK community! To kick it off, meet Joanna Ride, head of the Essex support group for Fibromyalgia Awareness UK.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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About Joanne: "I am 52, married with two beautiful daughters , three dogs and a tortoise. I work as an LSA in a junior school. Before I got my diagnosis I thought I was going slightly mad as the doctors were as lost as I was. Thankfully, after many tests, I was sent to a rheumatologist. He then, after more tests, gave me my Fibromyalgia diagnosis. I also have ME, arthritis, dystonia and spinal stenosis. I wanted to know more about this chronic condition and saw an advertisement about a Fibro fun day taking place. My husband said he would take me, we got lost and a just over an hour journey took us twice as long. When we arrived things were being packed away, however the lovely Lindsay Gibbs (Founder of Fibromyalgia Awareness UK) and her family made us a welcome cuppa and stopped for a chat. To cut a long story short we became friends and I decided to join her and start a support group in Essex. This is usually held the last Thursday of every month apart from December. At the moment we are not meeting because of Covid but we have a FB page. Since then, approx 5yrs ago, with the help of my great friends Emma Morris and Jane Coombes we have raised much awareness and some money for the registered charity.
Joanne's Fibro Philosphy: "Each journey with this chronic illness is different, as of late doing my job is extremely tough. I just hope that it will become easier again sometime soon. My philosophy about it is ‘ be kind to yourself, only you know how much you can do, be patient with people who don’t understand, how could they possibly ?’"
Joanne's Fun Fact: "I was once a bearded lady in a Halloween freak show."
Her Comfort: "On my worst days my family, friends and my animals are my biggest comfort.
Send Us Your Support Group
FM Support Groups are Cropping up through various Social Channels all the time, we would love to be able to keep an up to date list of all local groups in the UK. If you run a support group and would like to be included in our UK Fibro Support Map, please pop us your details and we will be in touch.
Come and join us on one of our groups, where we have over 40,000 members, all with moderators.
Private Group
Men & Fibromyalgia
Young People with FM
Fibromyalgia Images
Legal Marijuana products for Fibromyalgia