Arthritis support group needs more members to survive

A Stratford support group needs more members so it can continue to support people with arthritis.

Stratford Arthritis Support Group treasurer Margaret Coull says with the support group only having a handful of members, it is running at a cost to run the meetings.

“It’s very disappointing and we don’t want to stop the support group but if we don’t get more members we run at a cost. We have a hall hire but with our low number of members, it’s hard to cover that. We want to keep running the group for people with arthritis but at this stage, we might have to consider closing.”

To cover the cost of hall hire, the group runs in-house raffles.

“We also have a $10 fee for the year, but at this point, we haven’t collected it because we don’t know if we’ll continue.”

Margaret says without the Stratford Arthritis Support Group, there wouldn’t be any other local support groups to go to.

“Being located in Stratford means

we are central to the region so people can get here quite easily. It’s all about being accessible but if we close down, there is no other local support group around.”

The group had its first meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic in July.

The members meet up on the third Thursday of each month. Margaret says at each meeting, there is a speaker. “It’s not just about arthritis, we also have members of the police and the local fire brigade, artists, and once a year we have someone from the chemist speak to us about our medication.”

She says there is no age barrier to joining the group. “We welcome anyone who struggles with arthritis, we are here to provide a safe space where we can talk about what we are going through.”

The support group has run for the past 29 years, with Margaret joining the club 15 years ago.

“There’s been a lot of changes in that time, we used to go on field trips but with only a few members, it isn’t viable. We hope we get more members so we can continue running for the community.”