Lupus Coffee Morning

The monthly event was held on Tuesday at the Cooden Beach Hotel and is an opportunity to get together and share experiences.

This is a disease which affects 50,000 people in Britain - yet few of us have even heard of it.

Lupus invades the body's immune system, causing it to go into overdrive and then attack itself. However sufferers display many different symptoms, which means diagnosis and treatment can be delayed.

Retired paramedic Gerry Radford, 66, from St Leonards, has kept the Coffee Group going even though wife Jan died almost two years ago.

He said: "When she first contracted it, they said she would be lucky to reach 60...which she didn't tell me until she got to 60. She died the day before her 61st birthday, on January 29."

"Jan was a sister in the A&E department of the Royal East Sussex Hospital, but up to the time she was diagnosed she just didn't know. We had never heard of Lupus. It has become more known now because more and more people are diagnosed with it.

"Jan started off the coffee morning 18 years ago, after she was diagnosed, and originally there were only three of them, and they used to meet in our house. Then the meetings got that much bigger and we started meeting in other people's houses, and then in Thalia House because one of the residents there had Lupus. When she died, we lost that contact and started coming here 10 years ago."

The coffee morning is held on the first Tuesday of the month, and the Sussex Lupus Group takes part in other fundraising events such as the sponsored walk along Hastings seafront recently which raised 635.50.

Anyone interested in joining the Sussex Lupus Group or finding out more details can call Gerry on 01424 431605.