Celebrities with AS

Did you know...
...Motley Crue guitarist, Mick Mars, suffers from the degenerative disease known as ankylosing spondylitis. On Oct. 5, 2005 he underwent hip replacement surgery at the age of 53. His daughter, Storm, inherited the disease.

Other famouus sufferers include:

• Lee Hurst, comedian
• Ian Woosnam, golfer
• Chinese actress, Ada Choi
• Ed Sullivan, variety show host
• Christopher Pappas, singer-songwriter
• Rico Brogna, MLB player (Phillies and Mets)
• Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik, Russian world chess champion
• Ada Choi Siu Fun, actress and model
• Mike Atherton, English cricket player
• Michael Slater, Australian cricket player
• Mike Stafford, Canadian radio personality
• Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway

In March, 2006:
Former world-ranked Scottish snooker player Chris Small, 32 years old. Chris was forced to forgo the game due ot deterioration. The pain is now so bad he is virtually housebound and can barely pick up a cue, never mind his 22-month-old daughter Jessica. He was diagnosed with AS 6 years ago.
"The inflammation is always throbbing away, it's so painful," Chris says from his home in Craigentinny....Some people with this end up in a wheelchair or whatever later in life," he says ruefully, "I hope it's not me but that's a real worry. I just don't know what's around the corner now. It's not in my hands....It just affects everything about my life. I've got a two-year-old daughter and I can't even lift her. If I try I need to lay her down right away because of the amount of pain at the bottom of my spine. It just feels like it's about to collapse. Things have got a lot more painful in the last year or so. I can't even stand straight - I've always got a stoop."
A massive celebrity snooker event to raise money for Chris Small is to take place in Edinburgh in the summer of 2006.