Breaking a pain chain

For most of us pain is a brief experience. But, Rachel Sturges reports, some people live their lives in constant agony.
Hannah Gross sits cross-legged on her living room floor making chain mail. Talking quietly, she says: "This piece is for a fashion-designer friend who's doing a shoot."
Her hands are constantly busy snipping and shaping lengths of stainless steel wire with pliers.
It's an unusual pastime - other people knit or do crosswords to keep their hands busy. But for her, making chain mail is interesting, complicated and something she can always do, even when fatigued and in bed, to keep the muscles in her hands from seizing.
Hannah is 28 years old and has suffered from fibromyalgia since she was 16. It is a disorder of the central nervous system which causes widespread muscle pain and fatigue. It's believed to affect 3-5 per cent of the population in New Zealand. Around 80 per cent of sufferers are women.
Fibromyalgia is an invisible illness.
There's nothing obvious to suggest Hannah's in pain but after a while you see the careful, upright way she holds herself - in the same manner as other people with a sore back. Though for Hannah it's not only a painful back, it's painful feet, joints, skin, everything.
"I've been in pain for 12 years. You kind of get used to it. I don't remember what it's like not to be in pain."
She says this matter of factly. She refuses to be ground down by the pain, the fatigue and the eight medications she must take daily, which affect her concentration and render her unable to drive.
There are also weekly physio and massage sessions, yoga, meditation and stretching, without which it would be impossible to live a halfway normal life.
A trained actor, Hannah's been unable to work for four years. But she's bought a good camera and spends her time shooting pictures of circus performers, actors and models.
"It's something I can do no matter what state I'm in. I get to shoot circus performers - fantastic!"
It's a life restricted and defined by pain and fatigue, yet Hannah's stubborn spirit has found a way to go beyond these difficulties, and get out there and make things happen.
Painstaking work
Hannah has arranged an online art competition, Art Inspired by Pain, to raise understanding of chronic, pain-related illnesses.
The website's forum is also promoting September's Pain Awareness Month.
The winning entries will be displayed at a celebratory show on the evening of October 9 at Tabac, Mills Lane, in Auckland's CBD.
Musicians, acrobats and actors will perform and there will be a silent auction of the  winning artworks.
Proceeds will go to the charity of the artist's choice.
Details of the art competition and Pain Awareness Month can be found at
www.painmonth.co.nz