In 1987 the Relapsing Polychondritis Support Group was started by Clifford Ashworth. His vision was to find others with the rare disease and to raise awareness of it. The European Union's definition of a rare disorder is a condition, which affects 5 or less people in ever 10,000. Individually, rare disorders affect relatively few. Collectively they affect the lives of 58% of the European population 25 - 30 million people. There are no statistics available in the UK of the number of RPC patients, or indeed, of any rare illness.
Many years on, Clifford’s Relapsing Polychondritis Support Group and vision is still going strong and serving the RPC community in the United Kingdom. In 2000, we joined with The Polychondritis Educational Society, Ltd as an affiliated member to help build a stronger voice for the United Kingdom’s RPC community an addition to the global RPC community.
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