May the fourth be with you!

Hello from the newest member of the NRAS team! I joined 7 weeks ago as the new Membership Supervisor and have received such a warm welcome from everyone at NRAS.

I had known of NRAS for a few years before I joined, mainly through a few of my family & friends who suffer with RA, and feel incredible privileged to be working for such an amazing charity.

Our members are incredibly important and we are ever closer to reaching 4,000 members! The more members we have, the bigger impact we can have in raising awareness about RA, enabling us to carry out the essential services we provide. If you are not already a member and you are interested in joining, please call either myself or Gail in the membership department on 0845 458 3969 or email membership@nras.org.uk – become a member and let your voice be heard!

As many of you cannot fail to avoid – it’s Olympic year! Hurrah I hear you say! When I’m not working at NRAS, I’m involved in the Dorney & Eton Ambassador programme who are recruiting and training local people to help out during the Olympic rowing events at Dorney Lake (in our ‘colourful’ pink and purple uniforms!). The Ambassador programme has now created over 11,000 volunteers around the country and I am now one of 500 trained volunteers who will be available to help their local community, before, during and after the Olympics. So perhaps the Olympics will leave a lasting legacy after all...

Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a very sunny (and slightly surreal) day looking after Star Wars characters at Legoland Windsor and this weekend I will be stewarding at the Royal Windsor Horse show and Jubilee Pageant. Two very different roles, but both rewarding in their own way. It feels wonderful to be giving something back and to be using my skills for the benefit of others. Many of you already do amazing things for NRAS, whether it be helping our fundraising team, being part of our telephone support network, distributing information to surgeries/hospitals, coordinating our groups meetings or just simply helping us spreading the word! Helping NRAS, helps you! If you are not already involved and would like to volunteer, in however small a way, contact our volunteer network on 0845 458 3969 or visit our website for more information.

Make 2012 your ‘year to volunteer’!

Happy Friday to you all!

Emma
Membership Supervisor

Where have all the rheumatology consultants been this week? by Sarah Kate Ball

It’s been unusually quiet here in the NRAS office this week with a lot of staff members attending the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) conference up in Glasgow. The BSR conference is an annual event and a very important few days in the world of rheumatology. The conference is an opportunity for rheumatology consultants, nurse specialists, GPs, researchers, podiatrists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, academics and specialist charities like NRAS to get together and discuss all things musculoskeletal. This year there have been talks from some of the UK’s leading rheumatology professors, and seminars on subjects including ‘reproductive issues in rheumatology’, ‘sex discrimination in the autoimmune rheumatic diseases’, ‘optimising therapy for rheumatoid arthritis’, ‘the foot and ankle’, and ‘new developments in reducing work absence for people with musculoskeletal conditions’. There are various awards given to those working innovatively in the field of rheumatology, or to those who have made particularly outstanding contributions. There is also an opportunity for organisations like NRAS to exhibit research posters and make presentations about projects they have undertaken. This year we were proudly able to display one poster detailing an audit of our helpline services, another based on our ‘RA and Physiotherapy’ report, and to make presentations on our ‘Impact on the Family’ survey and our online work information.

It all sounds very interesting, and I am very much looking forward to hearing from those who attended about all the research findings, new developments and future areas of research mentioned. NRAS members will also have the opportunity to find out more about the topics and research discussed, and what we learned at the BSR this year, in the members’ magazine. You can see a sample of the articles featured in a recent NRAS magazine here: www.nras.org.uk/includes/do...

So, while it has been quiet, the skeleton staff left here in the office have been working very hard to keep everything ticking over! We have even found time to launch a new ‘foot health’ section of the NRAS website where you can find information on podiatry, foot hygiene and some personal case studies. Please click on the following link if you’d like to take a look: www.nras.org.uk/about_rheum...

I will shortly be needing advice on where to find some good sturdy trainers having signed myself up, along with 4 other NRASers to run the NRAS 10k in the summer. And as if running up hills and getting very sweaty on a Sunday morning wasn’t fun enough, we will also be dressed up as 70’s disco giants ‘The Village People’. So I now have the added challenge of finding some sweat-proof facepaint with which to daub a realistic looking goatee on my chin...wish me luck!

I think we are now all looking forward to our long weekend, I hope you are all able to enjoy a happy May Day bank holiday.

Sarah Kate

NRAS Helpline

AHOY There Mateys! by Maimie Hume

I am delighted to tell you that I have been rescued!

Along with four lovely seafaring colleagues in a wee boat, our merry team, The Jilly Rogers – so named after our illustrious Cap’n Jilly, - survived afloat and without starving or falling out – literally as well as metaphorically!

Just what is going on you ask, is nautical NRAS going overboard?

The boating theme is already well afloat with the gallant doctor Martin Lee circumnavigating this island alone amid blisters and courage. But the shipwreck rescue I refer to was part of our staff Awayday this past Tuesday.

Provided with a curious list of things deemed potentially useful, three NRAS manned and womanned boats did their utmost to keep their mariners fed, watered and alive – and of course hopefully rescued.

To my utter surprise, moments after I boldly declared that I would happily sink with my assembled shipmates, we were announced the winners! Happily no other boat sank either.

The fun exercise was a super use of teamwork and shared decision-making, not to mention creative problem solving and imaginative use of some very odd resources. It probably is no great surprise to you that these very qualities are regularly applied in our work at the NRAS office, where gangplanks are mercifully absent, and we enthusiastically keep the RA-awareness flag flying.

Our virtual sailing experience was part of a marvellous day’s intensive brainstorming, focusing on the development of NRAS, the factors that influence our current work alongside plans and ambitions for the future.

Ably commanded by Admiral Ailsa we look forward to steering through both smooth and choppy waters together and, as we do, we count on your continued involvement, support and willingness to share oars and lifebuoys with us!

Should I disclose the names of my inspired sea dogs? Perhaps not, everyone should have a secret that will go with them to the fishes - Especially on a Friday!!

Maimie Hume
Volunteer Network and Project Supervisor