Fen Kipley hopes to empower others with chronic pain to take back their lives, as part of a county-wide health initiative
Next month Fen Kipley from Lincoln is aiming to clock up 250 miles on a cycle tour across the county – a feat she never thought possible, after a car accident 17 years ago plunged her into an ongoing battle with persistent pain.
Despite living with fibromyalgia, seronegative inflammatory arthritis and hypermobility syndrome, Fen is donning her helmet and cycling kit to help others like her with chronic pain, which is believed to affect around 30-50% of residents in Lincolnshire.
She is joining the Flippin’ Pain™ tour, a six-day long event in September, which aims to highlight and rethink ways to tackle the county’s chronic pain problem.
Fen hopes that her own personal journey – which includes undergoing years of treatment with a concoction of strong and highly-addictive prescribed medications – will empower others living with pain, to regain control of their lives.
She explains: “Life with persistent pain used to be one of anger and depression. It seemed so unfair. And annoyingly, there wasn’t a great big gaping wound for everyone to see how much I was hurting. Even though I was surrounded by loved ones I still felt alone and helpless. I began to isolate myself because everything was such a massive effort. It was just me and my pain – no one else understood – so it was a lonely experience. The pain had stolen my identity, my purpose, my enthusiasm, my job and my joy.
“I can’t pinpoint accurately when I decided I no longer wanted to be a victim of my pain. But I’d decided what I didn’t want to do: I didn’t want to feel like an opioid zombie; permanently in a brain fog and having difficulty articulating even the simplest of sentences. I didn’t want to try another course of anti-depressants, because they didn’t solve the pain. I didn’t want to be pitied by friends, disbelieved by colleagues, and condescended to by clinicians. I didn’t want to spend another year on the sofa, looking out at a tree and watching the seasons change. I wanted my life back.”
Now relishing what life has to offer, Fen has a keen interest in gardening, wildlife and the environment, is a carer for her dad and enjoys being part of her local Steampunk choir. She now considers herself a pain survivor after a turning point in her health when she began trying to understand the patterns of her pain, fatigue, insomnia and depressive episodes. She realised that specific triggers worsened her mental and physical health, and she learnt to recognise and overcome them, so they didn’t overwhelm her quality of life, and that being fully focussed on an enjoyable activity made the pain feel less severe.
She is proud to be part of the Flippin’ Pain™ team, which will feature a series of public engagement and educational events, including a charity cycle ride and interactive pop-up experience village, the ‘Brain Bus’. Alongside Fen, other participants include nationally-renowned pain experts, health professionals and others who live with pain – who will meet and talk with local residents at 10 locations across Lincolnshire. Spanning a mix of venues such as schools, marketplaces, tennis clubs, town halls and medical centres, stop-off locations are:
- 12 September – Stamford
- 13 September – Spalding and Sleaford
- 14 September – Boston and Skegness
- 15 September – Mablethorpe and Market Rasen
- 16 September –Gainsborough, Horncastle and Lincoln
- 17 September – Grantham
Attempting to ‘flip’ public understanding of chronic pain, Flippin’ Pain™ is championed by community healthcare services provider Connect Health and is supported by NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group.
For more information and for updates visit www.flippinpain.co.uk
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