Teacher John Burns was 44 when he started suffering with wristache. But the six years which followed were a 'nightmare' for the dad-of-one, leaving him in agonising pain and suffering with depression.
John from Didsbury was diagnosed with arthritis and his symptoms quickly became worse. Every movement feeling like shards of glass were being stabbed into his joints.
Many mornings he was forced to ring in sick at his teaching job, having hardly slept due to the pain. “My worst days were when I would have to get up for work,” he told the Manchester Evening News.
“I’d have to be up for 6.40am, but I wouldn’t have woken up because I’d have been awake most of the night anyway. I knew at 3am I wasn’t going to make work.
"The following hours would just be horrendous because they would be so depressing. I couldn't surface out of bed until my body warmed up, it would sometimes take up to three hours.
"It was excruciating. It was as if my body was all broken.”
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Millions of people in the UK, including children, suffer with arthritis which causes pain and inflammation in joints. Symptoms, which also include stiffness and diminished range of motion in joints, can range from mild to severe.
John had minor symptoms when he was diagnosed with arthritis in 2011. But the wrist ache spread to other joints and he was eventually experiencing pain in almost every part of his body.
“I was at my worst in 2013,” he added. “It got to the point where I couldn’t really work. Those were really dark days where I can imagine some people would not be able to cope maybe even with life.
“It wasn’t so much the illness, it was the depression that it brought, too. There was so much misery.
"It affected all the family. I only managed to snap myself out of it because I’ve always been one of those people who are self-minded.”
Though he was given several different types of medications, nothing seemed to help ease his pain. Symptoms eventually became so bad for John that he was forced to give up his job.
But when he was offered an expensive treatment things finally started to look up. The medication meant John was able to reclaim part of his life and returned to work three times a week.
John decided to look into other types of alternative treatments including acupuncture. The treatment, which derives from traditional Chinese medicine, involves fine, flexible needles being inserted at specific points on the body.
“It really helped me and it gave me a different focus,” he continued. “The acupuncturist told me I didn’t need to take all my drugs and I was hesitant and frightened because I was on so many.
“I took a leap of faith and stopped all the drugs. Some people might say that’s silly and suicidal to some extreme.
"From seeing the holistic medicine approach, I went on a journey of cleansing my body. I literally started again and only put things in my body that I knew would hopefully have some benefit, like anti-inflammatory fruit and veg.”
Certain foods have been shown to strengthen bones, maintain the immune system and fight inflammation, according to the Arthritis Foundation. John claims he noticed a change within months.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I had blood tests to measure my inflammation every five weeks.
"Mine was 140 at one stage, then it came down to 90, then 70 and 65. I knew I was improving and I got to a stage where I was able to start doing some kind of exercise.
"A year later, medics were baffled. I was on no medication and I just continued with this marvellous diet and my exercise increased.
“I went from strength to strength. Medics still can’t believe what’s happened to me.
"They can’t work me out because there’s no cure for arthritis. But I think if it gives one person a bit of hope, I’ve done justice to somebody.”
