Who we are
The Plymouth branch was founded in 1983 by Dr. Peter Hickling under the auspices of Mr. Fergus Rogers, founder of NASS.
Our branch aims to promote awareness of ankylosing spondylitis and to raise funds for ongoing research into the causes and treatments of it.
Anyone who has AS in the Plymouth area is very welcome to come and join us.
What we do
We hold an exercise session every Wednesday evening in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
The sessions alternate, one week gym exercises and the next exercising in the hydrotherapy pool.
We are supervised by our marvellous physiotherapists and we all work to our strengths. We can ask any advice from the physios, who are only too keen to help us to keep as active as we can.
There is no compulsion to attend all the sessions. We feel a small voluntary contribution per session is in order.
We also hold social activities such as days out to places of interest, boat trips, raffles, skittles evenings, exhibitions, street collections and display days - these all help to promote feelings of well being and camaraderie.
We have fun which is a good way to support one another and to spread the word about AS.