Great Doddington charity continues to make a difference for people living with chronic pain

David Kelly and his daughter Julia in February 2014

A Way With Pain was the brainchild of Julia Kelly, who had a car accident in 2005 aged 29 and was left suffering chronic pain every day.

Julia’s condition was managed with medication, which caused drowsiness and lethargy, but the combination of pain and medication changed her life.

The consequences of her condition meant she lost her job, her home and her relationships.

Julia died in 2014, but she devoted the final months of her life to establishing the charity.

Using her own experiences, she set out to help people in similar circumstances to her own.

Her legacy lives on as the charity approaches its fifth anniversary and co-founder David Kelly of Great Doddington says there is still so much they want to achieve.

He said: “The challenge then, as it is now, is to raise awareness of chronic pain and offer support to those affected where we can.”

Chronic pain affects one in seven people living in the UK and can be totally debilitating.

Since getting charity status in 2013, A Way With Pain has raised more than £24,000, continued to develop its website to help people with chronic pain and produced two informative videos on the condition.

It has also distributed thousands of support cards to chemists and surgeries, made several one-off donations to individuals and given one-to-one support to people suffering from chronic pain.

Grants have also been made to the podiatry team for research into chronic foot pain at Northampton General Hospital and the chronic pain services at Kettering General Hopital for a mirror therapy box and digital radio.

Fundraisers have included an annual golf day at Overstone Park, curry nights at the Koh-i-noor in Finedon and last year saw its first cycle ride challenge.

The charity also launched a support group in Kettering in 2015, which meets every month.

As the charity approaches its fifth anniversary, Mr Kelly said: “We have ambitious goals that we will be working towards for the future.”

These goals include chronic pain becoming recognised as a disability in its own right, greater access to psychological support for sufferers after the pain clinic courses are complete, and more extensive training for health care professionals in treating chronic pain patients.

Another aim is better understanding of chronic pain in the workplace.

For more details about the charity, click here