JENNIFER Michael has lived with a potentially crippling joint disease for 45 years, its development at one stage mistaken for terminal cancer.

Initially diagnosed with rheumatic fever in the early 1960s, it was almost 20 years before doctors identified her condition as ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

Yet AS is not rare, and the mysteries and misunderstandings surrounding it have prompted the launch of an awareness campaign.

A painful, progressive rheumatic disease, AS mainly affects the spine, but other joints, tendons and ligaments can be hit, and occasionally eyes, lungs, bowel and heart.

Around one in 200 men and one in 500 women are affected, potentially more than 200,000 people across the UK.

Mrs Michael, of Clydach Street, Brynmawr, believes awareness must be increased.

"I think it first showed when I was 15." she said.

"I woke up one morning with terrific knee and ankle pains. I couldn't walk and my joints were swollen and inflamed. I spent six weeks in hospital."

Mrs Michael's symptoms ebbed and flowed but she raised two children and managed to work for many years.

"I'm a 'do it' type of person. It's painful but you have to get on with it," she said.

"When I was eventually diagnosed with AS I was told I'd end up in a wheelchair and incontinent."

The biggest scare came more than 10 years ago however, with an MRI scan to try to discover the cause of chest pains.

"The doctor had never seen what it showed, diagnosed cancer and said I didn't have long. But they tested me and couldn't find a tumour," said Mrs Michael, who lives with husband Alan. They have two children and four grandchildren.

"There were marks on my spine they thought might be cancer but they hadn't seen anything like them before."

Movement and exercise, says Mrs Michael, are the keys to living with AS. She regularly attends a weekly support group at Abergavenny's Nevill Hall Hospital (Thursdays 6.30-8.30pm, in the gym).

"Keeping mobile is vital. I've had two hip replacements and the recovery was helped by physiotherapy from support group sessions, because I was stronger," she said.

"There are times when you cannot exercise, and I often feel uncomfortable, stiff and awkward, but determination is the key."