Arthritis not only for the elderly

images

author

Kristi Tedesco - View Bio

Read more articles by this author

A medical problem generally associated with adults is being seen more and more in children. Right now in Arizona, there are about 6,000 kids diagnosed with juvenile arthritis.

Kids like Maddie Cutcliffe who won't let the disease slow her down. She plays harmony in her school's steel drum band and has such a positive attitude, she's captured the attention of the Arthritis Foundation of Tucson.

Maddie was diagnosed when she was just learning to walk.

Her mom, Stephani Cutcliffe, remembers "there were several times that she got up in the AM and couldn't walk at all and she'd come out dragging, with her legs, literally, dragging behind her."

Maddie says, "It's kind of like hard to imagine what it would be like without it, but it definitely makes my life a lot harder, like running. When I'm running, my ankles hurt more. Other people can just get up and do stuff and sometimes I can't."

The Arthritis Foundation of Tucson has picked Maddie as a, sort of, Ambassador. Maddie is the local face of juvenile arthritis.

Foundation spokesperson, Susan Sweeney says, "If you saw her walking down the street you wouldn't think there's anything wrong with her, but she has the disease that she'll have to treat and manage on a regular basis. "

One out of every five Arizonans has some form of arthritis, and half of those people are under the age of 55.

Maddie's used to the shock when she tells people she has juvenile arthritis. "When I told my friends that I have arthritis they were like 'I thought young people don't get that?'"

Maddie's been selected as the honorary chair for the Arthritis Foundation's December fundraiser, the Jingle Bell Run-Walk.