Wirral woman who set up a group to help sufferers of Fibromyalgia has been nominated for a Your Champions award

Sep 28 2011 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News

A WIRRAL woman who set up a group to help people control a painful condition has been nominated for a Your Champions award.

Wirral News has teamed up with ScottishPower to highlight the good work of an individual or group which has benefited the community.

Susan Walker has nominated Sue Strafford-Binks of Oxton in the champion volunteer category for setting up a group invaluable to sufferers of Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is pain in the muscle and connective tissue, which causes chronic widespread pain and allodynia, a painful response to pressure. There is no cure so sufferers need to take personal control to manage the illness.

Sue, who used to work as a hairdresser, set up two groups for Fibromyalgia Association UK - one in Wrexham and the another for Merseyside and Wirral which has 100 members.

Ms Walker told the News: “Fibromyalgia is a horrible condition, it is very difficult to describe but you get a lot of pain in the muscles and tendons – the fibrosis tissue on the body.

“Sue has devoted her life to it for the past 20 years. She suffers from many medical conditions including Fibromyalgia.

“She is the group leader and has the backing of the medical fraternity at Arrowe Park.

“Sue single-handedly started the group and pushed forward monthly meetings and they are wonderful. She has lots of different therapists there to ease the condition such as acupuncture, and fitness classes. It is a condition that never goes away, so Sue shows you how to control the pain.

“She is devoted and always there to help others, and she knows medics can take a long time to diagnose it.

“The group has helped me enormously along with hundreds of patients over the years.

“It would be a travesty if she was forgotten.

“Her wonderful work has given my life back.”