Janet Chairs the first All Party Parliamentary Group on Lupus.  The group exists to raise awareness of the condition among MPs and the public and works to improve treatment for sufferers.

Lupus is a little known condition similar to Multiple Sclerosis.  It affects the immune system, which becomes hyperactive and attacks the body's healthy tissue.  Systemic lupus can attack the skin, joints, blood, lungs, kidneys, heart, brain and nervous system.

Lupus is very difficult to detect.

" I first heard about lupus in 1970, when my mother was diagnosed." Janet says.  She had had a range of symptoms for many years, but she became very ill when the lupus attacked her heart.  The charity Lupus UK did not exist in 1970 and very little information was available.  My mother was so poorly that we wondered if she would survive, but thanks to the treatment she received, she did and she lived until she was 70.

Lupus is rare, so when Janet's husband, Alan Dean, was found to be suffering from it following their marriage in 1968, it came as a shock.

"He was diagnosed in 1978.  It was a completely unrelated case.  Alan was only 30.  After being critically ill, he was given superb treatment and went on to go back to work and to carry on as a local councillor.  The disease affected our whole family life."

Alan Dean died in 1994 from a heart problem, which may have been caused by the disease.

Janet is an active supporter of Lupus UK

Lupus UK