About 1.6 million people in the UK have this agonising condition, but it is often viewed as a comical malady brought on by overconsumption and idleness. What can be done to end the stigma?
Brett McAllister-Byrne was in his early 30s when he first noticed a sharp ache in his ankle and big toe. “I felt it the night after playing football, and I thought I must have had a knock or something,” he says. “But then it just got worse and worse.” The next morning McAllister-Byrne, an urban planner, was in too much pain to go to work. When he described the episode to his family, they suggested it might be gout.
“I was like, really?” he says. “Can you get that in your 30s?”
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