LOOKING at Suzette Firetto now, it would be impossible to believe that just last year she was stuck in a hospital bed, unable to move. Her arthritis had got so bad that she could not walk, or even brush her hair.

But since then, Suzette's life has undergone a huge turnaround, and she is now back to the fit, active businesswoman she used to be.

The 49-year-old's problems began when she was just 22.

She said: "I had a stiff shoulder, my ankle was very stiff and I was diagnosed with arthritis when I was about 25.

"It got worse from 30 onwards really, when I started getting quite heavy medication. It moved to all my joints.

"I'd have good days and bad days and then I would go into remission."

Suzette, of Banister Gardens in Southampton, said the arthritis totally changed her life.

"I couldn't work - I run a business, the Queen's Head Hotel in Ashby. Some days I just couldn't get out of bed. Having not taken any days off in my life it was very frustrating.

"It affected my life totally. I was so tired, I had no energy, I was in pain, couldn't sit on the loo, couldn't get off the loo if I managed to sit on it, couldn't get into the bath. Life was very problematic.

"I felt very depressed. My friends would be going out and I couldn't go with them. It was very frustrating, because I'm a very active person."

Suzette had to undergo an elbow replacement operation and also had to learn to drive an automatic car, because she could no longer manage the gears on her manual.

Things got progressively worse for Suzette and her arthritis eventually came to a head last year.

"I ended up in hospital for two weeks because I couldn't walk or move. It went out of control in my body. I just couldn't walk, my ankle was so bad. I couldn't do anything," she said.

"I had infections everywhere. Because my body was fighting the arthritis it left it open to infection.

"They tried me on lots of different drugs and combinations of drugs and nothing worked. I became allergic to one of the drugs and none of the combinations worked on me."

Eventually, things began to look up.

Suzette said: "About nine weeks ago I started on the anti TNF, which is this new drug. It's amazing, it's absolutely amazing.

"They felt I was a candidate for this new drug and I was put on it. It's made things a hell of a lot easier. I can walk and I can shop and I can work. It's made a hell of a lot of difference.

"It's totally turned my life around. I'm now back running my business and living a normal life."

Suzette now spends a day every two months in Southampton General Hospital receiving her injection of the anti TNF drug.

"It takes two hours and then you have to stay in for two hours. It starts off every two weeks and then once a month and then it's every two months," she said.

"People often say to me: 'You're very young to have arthritis,' especially as bad as I am. I think I've just been unlucky really.

"My sister's got it quite badly and my mother had it and my father had it."

Dr Chris Edwards, consul- tant rheumatologist at Southampton General Hospital, said rheumatoid arthritis is a specific form of arthritis.

"Rheumatoid arthritis affects about one per cent of the UK population. Locally, that's a good few thousand people.

"Although Suzette's rheumatoid arthritis is quite aggressive, many people have a similar story to her. It's not unique."

He added that to suffer from the condition at such a young age is not unusual.

"Most people with rheumatoid arthritis present during their 30s and three times more women than men get the illness.

"I think it's understated - its severity and its damage, because it can severely damage joints and affect people's general health as well. Rheumatoid arthritis can be a very damaging illness."

There are various treatments for rheumatoid arthritis available. However, they need to be started early by a specialist in arthritis to avoid damage to joints.

Research is also currently under way to discover how bad someone's arthritis could get in the future, so their treatment can be more specific to their needs.