Aching backs, hands and hip joints are only ever found in the elderly, right? Arthritis is certainly often dismissed as a disease that only afflicts older people, the assumption being that as a degenerative joint disease, it only plagues those northwards of a certain age.
But that's not so, says Katrina Thornely, the British Patient Support Director of the Emirates Arthritis Foundation, who is currently on a push to raise awareness for the foundation following its recent move into a new home at Dubai's Al Biraa Bone and Joint Clinic.
Katrina herself is a life-long sufferer of a particular strain of the disease - chronic juvenile arthritis, or JCA.
"I'm not an old person; I've had it since I was two," she explains from her bright new office on Al Wasl Road. "And then people say 'So what's the big deal? It only affects your fingers,' and you then have to reply 'Well actually, it can stop you walking, put you in a wheelchair and leave you bedridden.'"
Now 28, Thornely has suffered severely with her arthritis. Her mother realised something was up when Thornely was a toddler and struggled to crawl, so she took her to a doctor, and from there to a consultant. Thornely was diagnosed with JCA, but it seemed to go into remission for several years. She returned to the doctor again, however, when she was nine with renewed pain in her wrists and with problems being able to straighten her arms. The disease also affected the development of her jaw, which she says caused a "very round and chubby face" and so meant bullying at school.
Since then, Thornely has had the bones in her feet fused to help her improve her mobility, her wrists fused with titanium, and she remains on heavy medication - anti-inflammatories, biologic drugs that work by blocking the arthritic degeneration further, and ibuprofen to dull the pain.
Not that you'd know any of this from Thornely's irrepressibly sunny demeanour.
Anyone trying to raise awareness about arthritis, however, has had a tough time doing so during the recession. Dr Humeira Badsha, one of the Biraa clinic's doctors and an arthritis specialist, says that 20 per cent of people in the UAE suffer some form of arthritis, and there are approximately 100 types among them. The most common is osteoarthritis, which affects primarily older adults, whereas JCA is much rarer.
Thornely, for one, is hoping that recent attention in the celebrity press about the disease may help spur people on to greater understanding and support. The revelation came from none other than Lady Gaga, who said in an interview with The Times in May that she had tested "borderline positive" for lupus, a particular type of arthritis that damages the autoimmune system and doesn't only affect joints, but can also cause skin rashes, mouth ulcers, hair loss, eye problems and, in the most extreme cases, organ failure.
Thornely says she's hoping that Gaga's forthrightness will help to raise much-needed funds (it can cost up to Dh85,000 for a year's worth of drugs per patient) and awareness about arthritis in general.
Apart from trying to stamp out ignorance of the condition, Thornely is concerned with general day-to-day events for the foundation. They hold weekly yoga sessions ("We encourage patients to be active; if you don't use it, you lose it," she says with a smile), and regular coffee mornings for those who attend the clinic.
"It can be frustrating," she says. "Sometimes you get one person showing up, sometimes 15." But optimistic as ever, she says the hope is to hold a larger fundraising event towards the end of this year.
It's a cause that deserves much support.
For more information on arthritis, visit the Emirates Arthritis Foundation website at www.arthritis.ae.
The biog
Prefers vegetables and fish to meat and would choose salad over pizza
Walks daily as part of regular exercise routine
France is her favourite country to visit
Has written books and manuals on women’s education, first aid and health for the family
Family: Husband, three sons and a daughter
Fathiya Nadhari's instructions to her children was to give back to the country
The children worked as young volunteers in social, education and health campaigns
Her motto is to never stop working for the country
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the world. It was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks that are capable of devaluing currency. A Bitcoin itself is essentially a line of computer code. It's signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. There are sustainability concerns around the cryptocurrency, which stem from the process of "mining" that is central to its existence.
The "miners" use computers to make complex calculations that verify transactions in Bitcoin. This uses a tremendous amount of energy via computers and server farms all over the world, which has given rise to concerns about the amount of fossil fuel-dependent electricity used to power the computers.
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m, Winner SS Lamea, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer).
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,400m, Winner AF Makerah, Sean Kirrane, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m, Winner Maaly Al Reef, Brett Doyle, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh90,000 1,600m, Winner AF Momtaz, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m, Winner Morjanah Al Reef, Brett Doyle, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,200m, Winner Mudarrab, Jim Crowley, Erwan Charpy
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987
Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon
School: ACS in Lebanon
University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City
Nationality: Lebanese
Status: Single
Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
'Shakuntala Devi'
Starring: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra
Director: Anu Menon
Rating: Three out of five stars
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
KINGDOM%20OF%20THE%20PLANET%20OF%20THE%20APES
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