Radio star Chris O’Keefe has revealed a hidden childhood battle with juvenile arthritis, which he said consigned him to a wheelchair at times as every joint in his body was “inflamed”. The popular 2GB radio host opened up about his battle with the debilitating disease alongside fellow sufferer Lucy Mathewson, 14, Ruth Colagiuru from the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park, who has announced a $6.9m funding boost into juvenile arthritis in Tuesday’s state budget.
“By the time I was 14 or 15, I was finally in remission and I’ve hardly had a problem since then that was 25 years ago,” Mr O’Keefe said. “And guess what, in terms of being able to treat this thing, things haven’t got much better in terms of the resources across NSW. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
“Do you know how many pediatric rheumatologists there are right now in the state of NSW? Full time pediatric rheumatologists in the public system? “How many would you think? One. Yep, a single doctor. That’s all there is to treat kids with arthritis.
This for a disease that 10,000 Australian kids under the age of 16 are struggling with. It is clearly inadequate.” Lucy told listeners she has suffered from arthritis pain since she was a baby.
“I couldn’t get up on my cot,” she said. “I was struggling to walk downstairs and my parents realised and they decided that they needed to figure out what was wrong with .
