Hello.

I’m Helen, a researcher in her mid-late 30s who is trying to navigate the complex worlds of chronic auto-immune disease and academia at the same time.

In early 2018 I started working at Newcastle University and not long after was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. These two facts aren’t related but trying to work a demanding job and process this diagnosis at the same time in the following months was a challenge, there are still new and constant challenges.

As a researcher my instant reaction once I was diagnosed was to google scholar and read everything I could get my hands on about psoriatic arthritis and auto-immune conditions. A patient voice and everyday experience was clearly missing from the literature, so I decided to start documenting mine and that led me to creating this blog. I’m not alone in this, there are other great blogs and online communities, this is just my experience.