Category: celebrities with arthritis

David Prowse

Posted on by Grayson

You may not know it, but you’ve seen this guy everywhere. From movie theaters to the small screen, he is one of the most important science fiction/fantasy actors of the last forty years. Yet, no one seems to know who he is.

Prowse is one of three actors who brought Darth Vader to life, the other two being of course James Earl Jones (voice) and Sebastian Shaw (unmasked Vader). He was also a bodybuilder and has trained actors Christopher Reeve (Superman) and Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride).
Prowse first suffered symptoms from arthritis at age 13, but they seemingly disappeared while he was bodybuilding. As of 1990, the symptoms returned. By 2001, both his left and right arms became paralyzed and he was diagnosed with septic arthritis. He blames this on a prescription he was given for NSAIDs that he ended up being allergic to. The reaction he had to this medication nearly killed him. He has lost four inches in height because of his arthritis and surgeries resulting from it. Both of his hips have been replaced – and worked on several more times – and one of his ankles is fused.
As if his life wasn’t hard enough, Prowse was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March of 2009. As of right now, he seems to be in remission. He works with many arthritis-related organizations and is the vice president of the Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association.
For more on David Prowse, see his website.

Tina Wesson

Posted on by Grayson

Tina was the winner of Survivor: The Australian Outback in 2001. She never had a vote against her and always tried her hardest to get things done. I was behind Colby Donaldson 100% during the show, but if I had known about her RA, I’d definitely have cheered her on more. As I recall, she never really complained… even though she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1994.

She is now a spokesperson for the National Arthritis Foundation and leads a very active life. She has won the Tennessee racquetball championship twice, won a state doubles tennis championship, and came in third place in the state singles tennis championship. She has also run marathons in Ireland and Honolulu as a part of the NAF’s Joints in Motion program. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Tina about her battle with arthritis:

“I never wanted to be the poster child for arthritis, because my case is so mild,” she says in response to criticism from patients with severe cases who have posted angry messages on the foundation’s Web site. Yet, she’s speaking out to encourage undiagnosed sufferers to seek medical attention.

For more about her life and what she’s done since Survivor, take a journey over to her website.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Posted on by Grayson

Born in Cairo, Dorothy was a prominent British chemist. She advanced X-ray crystallography, protein crystallography, and confirmed the structures of cholesterol (1937), penicillin (1945) and vitamin B-12 (1954). In 1964, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for the latter of these accomplishments. Five years later, she discovered the structure of insulin. No doubt, this woman has touched the lives of thousands through the breakthroughs she made in chemistry.

As a 24-year-old, she complained of persistent pain in her hands. Her parents accompanied her to the doctor’s, where she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. However, she never let the disease get in her way. This diagnosis came before she had even discovered the structure of cholesterol. The disease would later cause terrible deformities in both her hands and feet. The following excerpt from her obituary shows Dorothy’s determination in the face of disability:

A woman of indomitable spirit, she refused to let even severe arthritis call a halt to her scientific activity. Only last year, although wheelchair-bound, she flew to an international crystallography conference in Peking, to the astonishment of the other delegates who attended it.

Dorothy was also a big supporter of education and very involved with social justice. She traveled from place to place after her discoveries and preached the importance of insulin for those with diabetes.
For more on her life, see this article from the International Union of Crystallography.

Erik Lindbergh

Posted on by Grayson

He’s Charles Lindbergh’s grandson and he is very into aviation. He is a flight instructor and commercial pilot as well as being a spokesperson for several organizations like the Arthritis Foundation.

Erik, like Billy Bowden, was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 21. For 15 years, the disease left him virtually crippled. He had to use a cane; otherwise, he was virtually unable to walk. After starting on Enbrel, Erik was able to gain back more of his mobility and has become very active as of late.
It is nice to see that Enbrel has helped him. Still, there are a lot of side effects and possible problems, so it is definitely something to talk about thoroughly with your doctor.
Erik’s personal website shares more about his life.

Billy Bowden

Posted on by Grayson

Billy Bowden was a cricket player in New Zealand, who has now had to turn to umpiring because of his Rheumatoid Arthritis. He also had a cameo in Slumdog Millionaire.

As an umpire, he has had to alter certain signals usually given because of his arthritis. The picture above is an example of this. As a young 21-year-old, Bowden began to notice symptoms and subsequently be diagnosed with RA. This left some of his fingers bent.
Here are some interesting words from this courageous man:

 

Until four years ago, when he became an ambassador for Arthritis New Zealand, he didn’t talk about it publicly. “Was it because I was embarrassed, because I was a failure, my faith was tested… because it was why, why me?” he says. “I was healthy, only 21, my life was in front of me, and it was an injustice. I wasn’t happy.”

Eventually, his strong Baptist upbringing allowed him to reach a more positive conclusion. “Arthritis has been good for me, because I am sitting here now talking to you about something I would probably never have done if I had been healthy and played cricket. God has got a plan for everyone, and that was my plan… my arthritis has changed my life and turned me into someone I might not have been.”

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Ignore the capering: he’s clearly a dedicated professional. Nowadays, for example, his ascetic lifestyle means he barely feels any pain from his arthritis. Bowden is virtually teetotal (except for a South African drink called amarula, he prefers a mixture of ginger ale and pineapple juice), he doesn’t smoke, he gets at least seven hours’ sleep, does 30 minutes of exercise a day and follows a diet planned by Jenny. “Some people think I’m on something, some kind of pill or tablet, but I just tell them that I’m high on life.”

 

How he can make it through the day without taking a lot of medicine is amazing. He has definitely learned to take this debilitating disease and turn it into something that doesn’t define him. It is easy to feel like he did as a 21-year-old (seeing as I am one) and think about how unfair it is that I have this disease that can, as we have seen, ruin lives. Sometimes the pain is almost too much to bear. I think that after researching how he has tried to continue living life normally, I have a new hero to look up to.
Here’s the interview I retrieved Billy’s words from.

Melvin Franklin

Posted on by Grayson

You might not know his name, but you’ve no doubt found yourself jamming along to some of his songs. Melvin was the bass in the hit Motown group The Temptations.

I couldn’t find a lot about his battle with arthritis, so this paragraph from his wiki page will have to do:

In the late 1960s, Franklin was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, the symptoms of which combated with cortisone so that he could continue performing. The constant use of cortisone left his immune system open to other infections and health problems; as a result Franklin developed diabetes in the early 1980s and later contracted necrotizing fasciitis. In 1978 he was shot in the hand and in the leg while trying to stop a man from stealing his car. On February 17th, 1995, Franklin lapsed into a coma and died six days later on February 23 of a brain seizure, at the age of 52. He is survived by his wife, Kimberly English, and his four children: David Jr., Davette, Felicia, and Niqous. Franklin is entombed in an outdoor crypt at Forest Lawn – Hollywood hill Cemetery.

He was in a wheelchair at one point as well. The article above doesn’t seem completely accurate, as most people don’t have side effects from cortisone injections. Most likely, the immune system problems related to arthritis were more of a culprit in Franklin’s health than medicines used to treat it. Whatever the case may be, Melvin’s privacy about his condition can definitely be understood.

Gabi Rojas

Posted on by Grayson

You might be saying who? Gabi Rojas was featured on So You Think You Can Dance earlier this year.

(For the record, my dream was always to become a ballerina. The chronic nature of my arthritis along with the fact that I’m very uncoordinated has squashed that dream, but I still love to dance)

At the age of 12, Gabi’s mother noticed that her index finger was pretty swollen. As more swelling appeared, a doctor’s visit and tests revealed that Gabi had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Because of the pain, she often used a wheelchair at school and had to stop dancing. Like many diagnosed with JRA, she had many sleepless nights and tried anything she could to ease the pain. Finally, the doctors found the right mix of medicines for her and Gabi was able to begin dancing again.
She wasn’t picked to go any farther than her audition on SYTYCD, but that hasn’t stopped her dancing career. She has joined a dance company and continues to work on her movement. She is definitely someone to look up to.

“When I dance I can feel my spirit being lifted,” she says. “When I dance I’m reminded about breath because when that point of ultimate exertion arrives I have no choice but to take in more breath to keep going,” she says. “It’s at that moment I remember my breathing hard isn’t just a moment of recovery but a beautiful reminder that I’m alive, I’m present and I’m me.”

More information can be found at Arthritis Today.

Famous People With Arthritis: Sandy Koufax

Posted on by Grayson

I wanted to start featuring stories about famous people with arthritis and how they’ve dealt with the change in their lives. Normally I will try to focus on people with Still’s Disease or the like, but it’s always fun to start out with the sports stars.

Sandy Koufax was one of the best pitchers of all time, of all time! But seriously, when you reduce the list to left-handed pitchers, he tops them all. Sadly, his career only lasted six seasons because of his debilitating arthritis.
The end of his career began with his 17th win during the 1964 season. The Dodgers beat the Braves 5-4 in August, thanks to Koufax. Not only did he pitch a complete game, but he scored the run that started the winning rally in the fifth inning. When he tried to avoid a pickoff throw at second base, Koufax jammed his pitching arm. After he won his 19th game, Koufax’s pitching arm was so swollen that he couldn’t straighten it. Clearly, this wasn’t good.
Koufax was diagnosed with traumatic arthritis, which is caused by repetitive movement. They pulled him from the remaining games in the ’64 season so that he could rest what had become a very valuable arm. He returned to the team during spring training in ’65. After Koufax pitched a complete game during training, he woke up to a black and swollen elbow. He was told to take it easy, prescribed drugs to help with the swelling and pain, and heavily used buckets of ice as well as different balms. The ’66 season would prove to be his last. Sandy Koufax retired at the age of 30.
Most of the information was found at Sports Illustrated.