I mean of course I didn’t want to see him in as much pain as what he went through at the start but I don’t think I would have changed it. I think that we were quite, what’s the word? We kept, not demanding but we were very, we knew there was something wrong and you just have to keep going, keep going and not sort of let it lie. We, we just knew, there’s something wrong, we have to find, we just have to find what it is and we were determined to and we did. Soe were never in denial. I know some people probably think, ‘Oh no it’s not that, it’s nothing. We knew we were dealing with something a bit more serious than just a pulled muscle and we were just very determined really and spoke up and you know made it really clear how we felt and how we wanted to move on and made that clear with the doctors as well.

I would say that you do have to really just get on with it and not sort of think and harp on it because we’ve always just moved forward; we don’t move backwards, we just carry on. And if we do get a flare up we’ll deal with it. I think, I never expected that Bradley would be the way he is actually, I thought, you know, he’s going to be limping for ever because you just do but I just think the methotrexate, it just controls it and the way I see it – we will, well the nurses at the hospital and us, we monitor. We know exactly what’s going on in Bradley’s body. Some parents haven’t got a clue what’s going in their children’s bodies but I know what’s going on with Bradley. I’m very on the ball when it comes to treatment, keeping his appointments, all the paperwork; I keep everything completely in order. I know every appointment date and you’ve just got to be positive, there’s no point in, in really harping on it because you want to make it as easy for the child. You don’t want to sit and talk about it all the time and talk about it with other people all the time. He just needs to be normal and I mean his friends all know the condition that he has and it makes absolutely no difference. They don’t treat him any differently, they don’t see him any differently and that’s all that I want. I just want him to be, he’s Bradley, that’s it.

Can I ask if your thoughts and feelings about arthritis have changed over time then?

I think because with Brad it’s, people don’t know he’s got it. We think that he’s, he coped really well and thankfully, I touch wood as I say this, he hasn’t had any flare-ups, it doesn’t affect his life. He’s walking, he’s running, he’s playing football twice a week, he’s completely, I mean when we go, when he gets checked out, he’s in remission so we just thank the methotrexate and we did use to talk about it, we did used to say, you know, if he said, "Well I’ve got a slight niggle in my foot, can you have a look," but now it, we don’t even, it’s just the norm, we don’t sit, we don’t really discuss it unless he has a flare-up. I mean he did have one about coming on for a year ago I think, his ankle, it was the knee actually I think and we had to go for a steroid injection. When we got there for the injection it had pretty much gone down. He has been put on prednisolone in the past and that’s obviously worked and he didn’t even need the injection soe just sort of, I think we think we’re quite blessed really that yes he has got JIA but it doesn’t affect his life thankfully.

I mean the first time we went I think, I’m trying to think back, we were there for a while and they felt his leg and doing all this poking around and I don’t even think he had an x-ray that time. It was just, "No it’s not a hernia," they were looking for and, "Oh it’s just a pulled muscle, go away, take some Nurofen (ibuprofen), he’ll be fine." But the second time when we went he had, he did have an x-ray, they call it a Frog x-ray where he had to open his legs out to take an x-ray of the groin and again I don’t think they really knew. It was just, "Oh yes, he’s pulled a muscle,’ sent him out on crutches and I just thought, ‘You know what, this is not a pulled muscle, this is more In fact I think it was twice we went because now I recall that it was after that second time that I said, "This is, we’ve got to go further, we’ve got to go privately because we need, he needs further tests."

So we then went to see a doctor privately because we just, we had to know, we couldn’t wait any longer and watch him be in pain. Which is what we did and after various tests and being told that Bradley needed an operation we then ended up back in, through NHS where they kept him in actually for a week. More tests and eventually he was referred to hospital which is where, again more tests and then he was diagnosed that he has JIA and also enthesitis.

Can I ask if your thoughts and feelings about arthritis have changed over time then?

I think because with Brad it’s, people don’t know he’s got it. We think that he’s, he coped really well and thankfully, I touch wood as I say this, he hasn’t had any flare-ups, it doesn’t affect his life. He’s walking, he’s running, he’s playing football twice a week, he’s completely, I mean when we go, when he gets checked out, he’s in remission so we just thank the methotrexate, and we don’t – we did use to talk about it, we did used to say, you know, if he said, "Well I’ve got a slight niggle in my foot, can you have a look," but now it, we don’t even, it’s just the norm, we don’t sit, we don’t really discuss it unless he has a flare-up. I mean he did have one about coming on for a year ago I think, his ankle, it was the knee actually I think and we had to go for a steroid injection. When we got there for the injection it had pretty much gone down. He has been put on prednisolone in the past and that’s obviously worked and he didn’t even need the injection soe just sort of, I think we think we’re quite blessed really that yes he has got JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis) but it doesn’t affect his life thankfully.