Public health campaign flips Grantham’s understanding of pain, while raising over £5k for charity

Lincolnshire welcomed a UK-first health campaign this month, targeting the estimated two in five locals in the county affected by chronic pain. 

Comprising an interactive ‘Brain Bus’ experience, a series of health professional workshops and public seminars and a county-wide charity bike ride, the Flippin’ Pain™ tour stopped off at 11 locations in Lincolnshire from 12^th – 17^th September. It started at Stamford Endowed Schools and ended at Grantham Tennis Club.

The intention of the campaign was to ‘flip’ public understanding of pain, which is often out of step with modern education and thinking. During the six-day tour, which also visited Skegness, Sleaford, Spalding, Boston, Horncastle, Market Rasen and Lincoln, over 300 people attended the free events, including Cllr Sid Dennis the Town Mayor of Skegness and the Jolly Fisherman. Countless more visited the pop-up Brain Bus Experience which was present at two different locations each day throughout the campaign.

Led by a team of pain experts, healthcare professionals and those with lived experience of pain, the initiative received high acclaim from visitors. The peloton of 20 cyclists, who rode over 250 miles across the county during the tour, also raised more than £5,000 for UK charity Pain Concern.

Lincolnshire local, Christine Johnson who has fibromyalgia, joined the community outreach tour in Stamford. Christine runs local support groups for people with the condition in the area and said: “A diagnosis like fibromyalgia is life changing and I was in quite a bad place for a while. A friend of mine helped me change my outlook on life with the condition and now I think ‘fibro and Sjögrens can have my body – I can’t do anything about that – but it’s not going to take me as a person away’.”

“I think education is massive regarding pain and if there’s a bit more knowledge, there might be things that can be done better than they have been done previously. Quite often, the people I see have been referred from place to place and we’re the bottom of the ladder, in a way. They’ve finally got down to us and it’s a case of ‘you’ve had all of these referrals, so where now?’ We need to know what management options there are for people with these experiences.”

Helen Banks, a former NHS nurse, was diagnosed with ME after years of failed surgeries and a ‘cocktail’ of medication. Helen joined the Brain Bus in Stamford and attended the public seminar in Sleaford. She said: “I was working as a theatre nurse and after a full week of scrubbing on my own, with one runner and no breaks, I woke up and thought ‘wow, my back hurts – it turns out, I’d slipped two discs’.

“Over the last few years, I’ve had many consultations, two failed surgeries, and two lateral spine fusions. I still have pain and I take nine tablets in the morning and seven in the evening to manage it. I’ve recently started a pain management programme to understand other management options. I’m scared about doing it, but if that’s where the research is leading us then that’s where it’s leading us. It’s a complete relearning of everything I’ve ever been taught, both professionally and personally.”

Flippin’ Pain™ is championed by community healthcare services provider Connect Health and is supported by NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group.  It follows the learnings of Australia’s ‘Pain Revolution’ movement led by internationally-acclaimed pain scientist, Professor Lorimer Moseley.

For more information and for updates visit www.flippinpain.co.uk.