A woman who has battled with chronic pain since childhood, and was repeatedly not taken seriously by medical professionals, is backing a public health campaign.
Rowan Battison is now 24 and the injustice of that days of her listening to doctors try to convince her parents her symptoms were not real, and that she was making it all up, still stings.
She has suffered with chronic pain for most of her life and it started in childhood when she experienced shooting pains whenever she sat down.
Rowan is now a health and wellbeing practitioner at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust, working with people who have severe mental health issues.
Read more: Family of North East dad captured by Taliban plead for his release from basement cell
“I think that to help people and to have a role that’s fulfilling and rewarding was something that I really needed,” she said.
And now she wants to help others suffering. That’s why she is keen to tell her story and to promote the work of the public health campaign Flippin’ Pain, which is leading a community outreach tour of the Tees Valley this month.
The campaign aims to change the way people think about, talk about, and treat chronic pain.
During the outreach tour, a group of pain experts, clinicians, and those who live with pain, will be visiting venues across Teesside, County Durham, and North Yorkshire to tackle the problem of pain head-on and give power back to those affected.
Read more: 'They don't fit into boxes': Parents protest lack of SEND provisions in Darlington
Read more: We went stunt driving with Top Gear's Paul Swift at Croft Circuit - here's how it was
Read more: All Darlington Coronation events: Bake Off, dance festival, and concert screening
Whether someone suffering from pain is believed or not has a big impact, says Rowan, as she discovered at that first hospital appointment.
“I went to the hospital, and I had a referral from my GP, and even still it felt like that wasn’t good enough. They wouldn’t even assess me; they wouldn’t even look at me. The doctor just literally said, ‘she’s lying, this is a made-up story, I’m not going to be assessing your daughter and this isn’t going to go any further.’”
Rowan, who now lives on Teesside, remembers how not being believed by a medical professional shattered her hopes that something could be done for her pain and that life would therefore improve.
Rowan naturally pinned a lot of hope on the medical profession, so it was devastating to be turned away, and it wasn’t an isolated incident.
Read more: Coronation events in North Yorkshire: Big screens, live music, and afternoon tea
For Rowan, it was not until she was 15 that she had a scan that showed her sacrum was curved outwards instead of inwards and was very swollen. She also has hypermobility, which further irritates her pain.
She was helped by a very persistent GP who believed her.
“My GP was so helpful in just validating my experience and making me feel less alone, even though she didn’t fully know what was going on,” she said.
“I understand it’s a rare condition but what has left me in tears in the hospital car park too many times is when people say that what I’m going through isn’t real or that it’s all in my head.
“I’d walk away feeling gutted and losing hope, and hope is the one thing that you need to manage any long-term condition.”
Read more: Drone images reveal rubble left behind after demolition of iconic Darlington pub
Now she wants to do what she can to help others in pain.
Over 28 million people in the UK live with chronic pain, with its prevalence highest in North East England, affecting around 43 per cent of people in the region compared to 29 per cent in London.
Three times the amount of high dose opioid and painkillers are also prescribed in the North East per head, than London.
Flippin’ Pain’s community health champion, Professor Cormac Ryan, said: “I hope Rowan’s story inspires other people suffering with chronic pain to find out how they can improve the way they feel.
“It can be a challenging road, as Rowan found, but there are many things that people can do to feel better and the more you understand about your own pain, the more strategies you can find to improve things.
“The figures show that more people suffer with pain in the North East than in other regions so we know there are many people in the local community who would benefit enormously from calling in at one of the events on the Flippin’ Pain tour.”
To get more stories direct to your email basket go here.
Commencing on Sunday, May 7, in Darlington the Flippin’ Pain tour will visit Guisborough (Monday, May 8), Whitby (Tuesday, May 9), Saltburn (Wednesday, May 10), Hartlepool (Thursday, May 11) and conclude in Durham (Friday, May 12).
It will comprise a series of free and informative consultation events and workshops for those affected by pain, as well as healthcare professionals working in the field.
Passers-by will also be invited to test their perceptions and challenge their thinking on pain, through Flippin’ Pain’s interactive pop-up ‘Brain Bus’ experience.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel