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Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Sophie - Interview 15 >> On a busy day she would do her physio before leaving home and use her inhalers on the bus. Says that you need to prioritise and do the one that it is

Sophie was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was 8 years old. She was taught by her parents to do all her own medications and treatments and encouraged to do sport. She is the Social secretary for her university Netball Cub. Sophie has a positive approach to her condition and says that she lives life to the full.

Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Sophie - Interview 15 >> Explains her condition and her daily care routine and says how hard it is sometimes to get a good balance between her activities and the looking after

Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Sara - Interview 27 >> Had night time leg splints for her arthritis but found it hard to wear day time splints on her wrist. Wished she had kept doing her daily shoulder exe

Sara was diagnosed in 1990 with Juvenile chronic arthritis. She has had a finger tendon repair & a hip replacement. Current medication Anti-TNF Humira injected 2/month, indometacin, co-codamol & Lansoprazole. Says that with her current medication she has more energy to do things like exercise. She attended a Tai Chi course for people with arthritis and really enjoyed it.

Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Jodie - Interview 18 >> She has tried many sports including skiing and scuba diving. She does not cough so says she does not need to do her physiotherapy.

Jodie has cystic fibrosis (CF) and was diagnosed with CF related type 1 diabetes in her early teens. Of the two conditions she finds her diabetes the harder to control particularly because she has a very active life. She finds that the specialist care she received is brilliant. She remains thankful for all the nagging she got from her Dad and her children's consultant.

Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Kate - Interview 19 >> She is in her final year at university and also works so she finds it difficult to go to the gym everyday. Prefers exercise to physiotherapy because s

Kate was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) when she was 4 years old by a new consultant who spotted the symptoms straight away. Previously, she had been misdiagnosed with other conditions such as asthma and a milk allergy. Kate has very few CF related symptoms and although she has had the odd chest infection, she has never required intravenous antibiotics.

Long term health conditions >> Women 19-23 >> Elizabeth - Interview 01 >> Says that doctor's language is 'over the top' and thinks that some can be insensitive and impersonal.

Elizabeth was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 16. She now works for a Department of Health funded project. She says that as a teenager she 'rebelled' against her condition and stopped taking her painkillers. Her attitude now is to work with her condition rather than against it. She takes regular exercise and does a lot of walking.

Publication date: October 2007 Last updated: February 2012

Review date: February 2014

Various long-term health conditions can occur in young people. We interviewed 30 young people about their experiences of different chronic illnesses. Select from the key topics below, choose from the full list of topics on the right hand side of this page, or explore all the interviews by clicking on people's stories below.

Sophie says: “I've had a good weekend despite my lungs not feeling too good. My boyfriend's training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro so we have been hiking!”
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