We are very pleased that you agreed to an interview. We would like this interview to familiarize the patients with the subject matter of clinical trials from the point of view of a patient involved in a modern medical program.

What do you do in your every day life? How do you spend your free time?

I work in accounting. After work I’m a housewife taking care of hearth and home. Whenever I have a free moment, I love to swim in the pool – it is what I love, my Zodiac sign is Pisces, so I think It’s no surprise . Always try to find as much time as I can for my close friends, to see a movie or go shopping, go on a road trip or get-togethers at home.

Does your disease interfere with your every day routine?

I’m always trying to get by all by myself as much as possible, kind of a “miss-I-don’t-need anybody.” The disease has not made me count on being helped by others, but that doesn’t always work. There are situations where, in spite of trying, I’m not able to carry on by myself. Preparing dinner is a pretty basic activity for the healthy, but for me peeling vegetables sometimes becomes a challenge due to severe pain in the joints of my hands, fingers and wrists. There are moments when getting out of bed and getting dressed become difficult. Generally there are better days and worse, but I always try to accomplish as much as possible without the help of relatives, who I can always count on anyway.

From who and when have you found out about our clinical trials?

On one of those worse days I met up with a friend. We talked a lot. I learned that her sister undergoes a treatment provided by a center of clinical trials. She told me what does a trial look like and, most importantly, about the positive effect the trials have on her sister. I decided to give it a try. I myself suggested my doctor to include me in such alternative treatment, as I felt pretty helpless anyway, maybe finally this time we can get it right, maybe something will come out of this after all these years. The doctor suggested I tried the Globe Clinical Trials Center (Globe Badania Kliniczne) in Kłodzko. I decided to go.

Does your family support your participation in the medical program?

My family is there with me every day, for better or worse, when it’s really hard to go on without them. They do not object to my participation in the trial.
Every safe method capable of bringing any improvement in my condition and eliminating all the diseases I suffer frommeets with the acceptance of my relatives.

What is your participation in the clinical trial like?

The whole time from the day I had told my doctor I wanted to participate in a clinical trial, I had been wondering what it would be like and will there be pain? I was not aware of everything.
Now I can safely say that there is nothing to be afraid of. In order to participate in the trial, first I went through a specialist consultation. I qualified for the trial. Now I visit the center in Klodzko upon appointments arranged by the extremely kind coordinators. Consultations with a physician and the trials are free. I already had two MRI scans of my joints performed, to name but a few. There is a consultation visit with the doctor at the center, and after that a series of tests is performed, starting from specialist blood tests, ECG, physical examinations, and finally a detailed examination of each bone and each joint by a physiotherapist. My duty is to follow the regimen of taking the tested drug – the time and the recommended dose for example, and then I have to update the center about my well-being.

Would you recommend participating in a trial to other patients?

Yes! Participation in this trial gives people struggling with a lot of pain each day the opportunity to finally bring the suffering to an end. For the moment, there is no open-access to such alternative treatments, so I think that people who meet the required criteria should take advantage of it. From my perspective, the form and the principles of the trial are transparent.
The appointments at the center are always set in a way that they do not interfere with anything. As for the atmosphere, nothing but positive thoughts come to mind, I wish every place was this nice and treated patients with such warmth.

Thank you very much for sharing with us your experiences and opinions on the participation in clinical trials conducted in our center. We wish you lots of health.