E-Mail to MP – Julian Smith – Skipton/Ripon – UK

Julian Smith

My name is Chris Stephenson, I’m 30 years old and I’m a resident in Ripon. In 2009 I had an unsuccessful Hip Arthroscopy where I developed a rare condition known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) which has gradually got worse over time, spreading throughout my whole body leaving me house-bound for the last 3 years. As well as the constant debilitating pain us sufferers have to endure, secondary to that one of the hardest things to deal with is the lack of understanding the illness has leaving us open to a lot of prejudice.

Through social media I have met a fellow sufferer called Victoria who is a huge inspiration to me and has a website called ‘Burning Nights’ at chronicpaincrps.com. She is trying to raise funds to become the first registered charity in the UK and she, along with 7 other CRPS sufferers, knowing it would increase their pain levels, attended a meeting in Parliament organised by Iain Stewart. 4mp’s attended the meeting as well as 2mp’s assistants – unfortunately 2 representatives from the NHS didn’t turn up, which not only shows a lack of professionalism but the difficulties CRPS sufferers endure in not only raising awareness but the lack of understanding we crave.

The outcome was to set up an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) which is to raise awareness with all MP’s in every party in Parliament. Hopefully when the APPG has been set up around June time there will be a good number of MP’s who are willing to stand up for their constituents and also being CRPS out of the darkness so that more people can be aware of it… I would truly appreciate it if you could get on board with this as we really do need all the help we can get.

Many thanks and I do hope we can count on your support in this…