Hi everyone,

Just wanted to update you all on how the trip to London went.

As some of you may remember, my mum and I were asked last month by my Pain Management Doctor if we would go to the House of Commons in London to speak about School's not understanding Chronic Pain Conditions. My PM Doctor knew that we have had problems with School so thought it was the perfect oppertunity for us to go and speak out.

The trip to was really interesting. When we got there, we were lead into a massive room where all of the MPs went and had their big meetings and where the Prime Minister has been a lot of times also.

In the room were about 50 kids and their parents. When everyone got there, the MPs started coming in and the local news stations and explained to us what we had to do.

There was a panel of 5 MPs and Education Seceteries from all over the Country. Before we went to the meeting, we were told to write down a question that we wanted to ask to the panel and then the child had to go and speak it out.

There was a lot of children asking all sorts of interesting questions and it was amazing to see how many other children unfortunately, have had to deal with the same problems as me. The children that were there had all sorts of chronic illnesses such as Pain Conditions like myself, Diabetese, Asthma, Cancer, Mental Illnesses, Heart Conditions etc etc.

The MPs were really good at answering the questions. One girl explained how she had had an Epileptic fit and was made to take a really important exam 20 minutes after that had happened!!! I couldn't beleive it when she explained that! She wanted the MPs to try and make sure that the schools will allow additional time for people such as her to take their exams if a problem occurs.

Another girl that spoke out had Diabetese and started to feel ill in class so asked her teacher for something to eat. Her teacher didn't believe that she was ill and told her to just got on with her work so she went into a massive Hypo (sp?) and had to be hospitalised!!

Because there was so many children there unfortunately, we didn't all get to ask questions but the questions that were answered, were similar to the ones we all had anyhow.

It was amazing (and horrible at the same time) to see how many other kids have had similar experiences to me. So many times, I thought it was just myself that had to deal with that so it was kinda interesting to see that it wasn't.

The MPs semt to be really interested in what we were saying and were shocked as to what had happened with all of us. They are going to speak to the Prime Minister about things and hopefully, put some laws into place to ensure that this doesn't happen again. They did explain though that some of the things that happened, shouldn't be because theres laws in place so obviously, some schools haven't been following them! They seem to think that it's a problem with teachers etc being uncaring and not understanding so are going to try and make them ALL have training on how to deal with kids with illnesses, what not to say etc which is a really good idea I guess.

After the meeting was over, my mum and I met our local MP who took the time out to learn about RSD, write down some info about it etc. He also asked us what questions we would like to ask and told us that he's going to try and get back to us asap with an answer.

We also got showed around all of the House Of Commons which was really interesting. None of the other kids got to look round so we felt really special! Our MP showed us where the Prime Minister goes for meetings, the House Quaters etc etc which was really good!

I'll keep you all updated as and when we hear anything!

Thanks again for the support,
Alison