THOSE WHO SAW ACTRESS OLIVIA COLMAN’S Oscarwinning portrayal of Queen Anne in The Favourite may have an inkling of just how painful gout attacks can be. Queen Anne was plagued by them – she could barely walk because of the damage to her joints, and often screamed the palace down when she was having a flare-up. Humour aside, it’s high time the myth that gout is amusing and/or self-inflicted was debunked.
‘If one more person had told me to lay off the beer or port when I mentioned my problem with gout, I’d have screamed at them,’ recalls Sue McDonagh, 60, a commercial artist from Cowbridge, South Wales (pictured, right). She has suffered gout attacks for more than a decade. ‘The first time, I assumed I must have broken my toe – it was such agony. I’d taken part in a walking event in the Lake District and had to put my leg up on the dashboard of the front seat in the car as I was driven home. ‘When I went to A&E, the doctor dismissed my symptoms as arthritic changes to my toe and sent me home with painkillers. My GP said it was probably just a one-off, too.’