A man who was forced to give up his own business due to arthritis pain is now helping others change their lifestyles to find relief from the condition.
But after finding help managing his pain through the charity Versus Arthritis, Gareth became self-employed and now runs low-impact exercise classes to help others deal with the pain of arthritis. "It was the same at home, you can't be as active. I'm still a relatively young man, I'm 40 now, and at the time I was only in my mid-30s. The expectancies don't come from other people, they come from yourself, in that you want to be an active parent and play with your kids. When you can't do that, you almost feel like you're putting people down."
He now teaches exercise classes for people with health conditions such as arthritis in a bid to help others. "I attended one of their self-management courses which lasted for six weeks, everything is covered on those like lifestyle, diet, and dealing with low moods. I thought it was fantastic and it gave me a whole new outlook on life as it were, and how to go about managing myself and my condition. After that, I started volunteering for them too.
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