In October 2007 I started to get a weird rash on my legs, at first my parents thought it was a heat rash or something to do with my shinpads. But I also started getting pains in my knees. One of the dads at football is a GP and Mum asked him to have a look at me, he said he believed it was HSP (henoch schonlein purpura) and that I should go to the doctors straight away.

I did and it was indeed this illness.

HSP is a rare childhood illness which is caused when your immune system reacts to an allergy.

There is a risk of kidney damage. You might get it again.

The worse effect of it (and it was in my case) is that you get arthiritus in all your joints and in my case it made me very ill with sickness.

Once we knew that I was going to get worse (there is no real treatment or immediate cure), you get told that you will get better by yourself, Dad and I went to Calcot Golf Club one day and Dad told me that it might be my last time for a while until I got better. By that stage I was getting stiff knees and my hips hurt so I only had a quick putt on the putting green. Dad promised me that he would only go back to the golf club when I got better and could play with him again.

Then I got really ill losing about a stone in weight (I don't weigh much anyway). I also got really sick and had a lot of stomach pains and sickness. I also became so ill with the arthritis that I couldn't walk and could only get about in a pushchair or wheelchair. My parents got really stressessed out as nobody could really help me. All the family including my aunts, uncles and grandparents helped nurse me and I missed a whole term off school. 

In desperation my dad contacted some people which one of his work colleagues mentioned and tried some alternative natural remedies and it might be coincidence but after a week of taking these and 7 weeks from when I started to get ill I started to get a little better.

It took time and one night my Dad took me to Football to watch Reading v Liverpool, I still couldn't walk properly so he carried me all the way from the car -well - he needs to get fit anyway! But we still didn't go anywhere near the golf club.

As the back end of January approached, I could finally walk properly not 100% but I did feel better, I told Dad that I was ready to play golf again so he took me to hit a few balls on the practice range. Early in February I was determined to get back to comps and the Tour as I missed it so much, Dad let me play in a comp but only 9 holes. It was great seeing all my friends back on the tour, I came last but I didn't care! Steve Adams welcomed me back at the presentation, this meant a lot as Steve and Sherry had stayed in touch to see how I was, from that I gradually eased myself back into golf,

I also got back to football very gradually, I went to watch the team first one Saturday, Andy the Manager and my teammates were brilliant and I won the effort award for the week for just getting there!   I did give up swimming. Now I only do one sport a day where before I would do too much in hindsight.

I hope other kids who get HSP find this story useful as you will get better, it just takes time. I am now 100% and the doctors have said I can play 18 holes and play football full on again. I sometimes get an ache in my left knee but that is now the only thing.

I am determined as I get older that I will do something about HSP and it having no proper treatment or cure other than it has to pass through you. Not sure what it is going to be yet so watch this space. My dad is now a member of the HSP Support Group who's founder Kate helped us they provide support to families going through what we did by relating  experiences to their situations. More info is available at http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40001227/ which has a tab at the bottom for contacting the group.