Who Am I?
My name is Max Poplawski. I am 29 years old and was diagnosed with arthritis aged 17.
First and foremost I am an athlete, and secondly I have arthritis. Specifically, I have Axial Spondyloarthritis (a mouthful I know).
I have always been a sporty person. For as long as I can remember I have been doing one sport or another. By the age of 9/10 I focused on swimming and rugby. When I was 14 I was captain of my local rugby team, and even competed within the UK Schools National Tournament. My swimming was objectively more successful. I have a few National School medals, and have swam at UK nationals for both club and school. I trained a lot. I worked hard to get to where I was, and as a result sport was a huge part of my identity. I was always the ‘swimmer dude’ at school with my chlorine bleached hair. That was me.
I was diagnosed at 17. In retrospect, I had symptoms from about 12 onwards. My whole sense of identity came crashing down around me. I wasn’t the ‘swimmer’ anymore. I was the guy sitting at home unable to walk because my sciatica was so bad. The physical parts of AS are well documented; the back pain, the soreness, the tiredness – the mental part, not so much. It is draining, and hard, and tiring, and I was miserable. I don’t say that often, but I was truly miserable and spiteful at the world around me. “Why me?” would be on repeat in my head. After all, I did everything right. I exercised, I ate well, I slept as well as I could. What more could I have done?!
I am 29 now. I have got to a point with my medication and sport that I can manage my condition. I am an athlete. I managed to claim my professional license as a middle distance triathlete, and have run multiple ultra marathon distances. While I have stepped away from professional sport I am still extremely active.
In addition, I run a YouTube channel about outdoor sports (and more recently AS in young people). I hope to be able to use the platform to raise awareness about the condition and its role in young people’s lives by sharing my experiences to both promote awareness about the condition, and to inspire others to push themselves to limits they thought not possible. I am also a member of the Young Person Versus Arthritis Panel that meets to promote the needs and wants of young people who suffer from arthritis to the charity Versus Arthritis. I am trying to be an advocate.
My ethos to life is definitely one of pushing myself to my limits, or at least trying to find what they are. There is no time like the present and no opportunity like the one you give yourself. I truly believe you have to take the chance, even if it looks bleak. Better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all.
Max Poplawski 