We are delighted that Gemma Almond, Paralympic swimmer, is working with us as our Patron at DDH UK.

Today she talks about her life with hip dysplasia, why she has decided to come on board at DDH UK and how it is has made her the person she is today. What I love about Gemma is her positive outlook and can do attitude but also her ability to empathise with others on their journey towards healthy hips – be it patients or parents. 

We thank Gemma for her involvement and are looking forward to working with her moving forwards. 

Natalie 

For my first blog I wanted to write a bit about my journey and why I am part of this charity and want to make a change.

The last two months of being a patron for DDH UK have flown by and I am excited about the future.

The experience has been rewarding, if not a little eye-opening. I am twenty-three years old and I had previously associated DDH with a ‘child’ me. This is understandable as it is a childhood condition, it wasn’t caught until I was four, and it shaped a lot of my childhood memories.

However, over the last couple of years it has increasingly been coming back to the fore as I have discussed future treatment and debated over whether to have hip replacements. DDH is a paediatric condition that never goes away, even in adulthood, and it is this, which I have realised over the past weeks whilst hearing all the stories on the DDHUK forum, is the most heart-breaking aspect of it.

It’s not about the formation of our bones, or the operations that help correct them, it is the children that go through an experience that will ultimately shape their life, for better or worse (and parents that have to find a way to cope and make the best of a sometimes helpless situation).

My story is very familiar to everyone with DDH, or those who have a family member or child with DDH. I underwent numerous operations and had pelvic and femoral osteotomies on both my hips, I learnt to walk multiple times, and I adjusted to the limited mobility and pain that came with it.

At the time, in many ways, it robbed me of proportion of my childhood and my parents remember mine (and their own) distress. However, memory is a funny thing and DDH was a defining point, but not in the way that most people would think. In my facebook live I highlighted that I cannot fully remember my operation experiences and in a way I now remember what I ‘chose’ to: the pattern on the hospital curtains, the games cupboard and my over-large socks to name but a few. Whilst there are negatives, I would not change the way I am, and I hope everyone with DDH can learn to think that way or appreciate what the condition gives an individual (even if this at first seems a bit backward). It changed me in three key ways for the better:

1. You have to overcome adversity, which taught me that things may be challenging, and not always easy, but with a little faith and perseverance you’ll get there.
2. It gave me determination and strength (as a result of the above), which helped me move forward and could be applied to all aspects of my life.
3. It also made me realise that I should make the most of any situation and be positive. I am forever an optimist – this was not something that came naturally and I spent a considerable proportion of my life thinking ‘why me’. However, I did eventually learn that it was better to accept and be content, and I cemented this approach in my teens with help from a sports psychologist. For the most part (everyone has a bad day) all clouds have a silver lining and I came to appreciate the little things in life a whole lot more.

Without DDH I don’t think I would have had the perseverance to achieve my dream of competing at London 2012, and I don’t think I would be the content or happy person that I am. However, this is easy to say with hindsight and next year my first operation will be twenty years ago – two whole decades. Yet I know so many parents and children are going through it right now, and I know how difficult it is to get to where I am today, which is why I want to be part of this charity and write this blog.

Better awareness will encourage early diagnosis and more support will make the journey easier.

In the New Year I hope to announce something exciting that will structure future blogs, but in the mean-time I will do one blog a week into Christmas to introduce myself and cover three areas that have shaped my DDH journey: pain; swimming and sport; and my family.

Gemma xx