Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

FALINSKI () (): One of the worst experiences any parent could go through is seeing their child in pain, but it is even harder to see your child in pain and not know why they're in pain. This was the experience of the Peacock family, who live on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, and it happened to their daughter Nylah when she was just three years old.

The cause was a painful, incurable autoimmune disease called juvenile arthritis.

It can feel like your entire body is on fire. Juvenile arthritis impacts over 6,000 children across Australia, while, for 30,000 people in Australia whose arthritis started as juvenile arthritis, it extends into adulthood. The discomfort is so bad that it is often difficult to eat or even just get out of bed. But the number of people that we are talking about could be a lot higher, considering the complexities linked with diagnosing such a disease and the people who are getting it being small children. Even then, there is still a shortfall in services such as specialist doctors, nurses and physios to assist with treatment. It is time we raise greater awareness about this horrible disease to create a better future for our families, for families like the Peacocks and especially for people like their daughter Nylah.