A BRAVE young girl from Landrake is speaking out about her experience of living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis to promote the launch of a new guide for TV and film.

The charity Versus Arthritis is launching ‘The Painful Truth: A Guide to Depicting Chronic Pain on Screen’, and Jasmine Leslie, 17, has leant her support to the cause by sharing her own experiences.

“It’s difficult revising due to fatigue and pain after a long day at school”. This is how Jasmine describes the reality of living in chronic pain as a young person.

For 10 years she has lived with the pain of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. She said: “It’s been difficult revising for exams these last two years due to fatigue and pain after such a long day at school – it’s so hard to stay on top of everything as well as catching up on missed work due to appointments.

“It can be hard to explain how one week I’m well and the next I’m not. For example, I did the school production where I was dancing and singing, but the next week I was really suffering. I took more pain meds and oral steroids so I could do it, but after it was over, I was in a lot of pain.

“I think it’s really important for people with chronic illnesses, particularly young people and those with invisible illnesses, to have representation in the media.

“By doing so, it will enable the public to have more understanding, and help those given a diagnosis to feel less lonely and more confident in discussing their disability.”

The charity says experiences like Jasmine’s are rarely shown or depicted accurately on TV or film screens. But for more than 18-million people in the UK with chronic pain – of which arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions are one of the biggest causes – this is their day-to-day reality.

Absence of chronic pain on screen is making people feel ignored and enabling misconceptions about arthritis to continue, such as that it’s an older person’s condition. All this stops people from speaking up and getting the help they need. Research from the charity highlights the huge impact of a lack of storylines and poor representation on screen, with a third (33%) of people with arthritis saying it has even made them less likely to seek out support.

Versus Arthritis’ research also revealed that just six minutes of the UK’s most watched TV shows and films in 2019 featured chronic pain. But even when it did feature, it perpetuated unhelpful tropes, as there were no young characters living with painful conditions like arthritis, and characters hid their pain from those around them for fear of judgement.

This is why on May 5, Jasmine gave her support to Versus Arthritis during the launch of its latest publication ‘The Painful Truth: A Guide to Depicting Chronic Pain on Screen’.

For the first time, guidance for the TV and film industry aims to bring an increased and more accurate portrayal of chronic pain – defined as pain which has lasted more than 12 weeks despite treatment or medication.

Ellen Miller, deputy chief executive of Versus Arthritis, said: “Living in pain can have a devastating effect on people’s lives, preventing people from caring for their family, being intimate with their partner, and even stopping them from having any chance of sleeping well.

“The invisibility of it on our TV and film screens has a profound impact on people’s sense of self and mental health, leaving many feeling forgotten and misunderstood. This is not acceptable.

“TV and film have incredible power to shape society’s attitudes; which is why we are calling on them to better represent pain.

“We’ve seen how better portrayal on screen of important issues has led to greater understanding. Now is the time for recognition and attitude shifts for chronic pain and arthritis.”

To read the guide and find out more about the campaign, visit www.versusarthritis.org/thepainfultruth