We are delighted to announce that Pete Moore has been chosen as the Pain UK Pain Champion for 2014 by Pain UK, the British Pain Society and the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.
Five people were nominated by members of the three organisations for the award, which recognises the hours of unpaid work undertaken in the charitable sector to support people with chronic pain. The panel had a tough task choosing one candidate from an excellent field, but Pete’s outstanding work in promoting patient self management of pain over the last 14 years was an amazing achievement that stood out.
Pete said: “I’m really surprised, pleased and honoured to be chosen as Pain Champion 2014. I would like to thank those who nominated and voted for me”.
Pete has been championing the self management of pain for the last fourteen years. He is a long term back pain sufferer whose life changed when he was sent on an INPUT pain management course in 1997, which equipped him with a ‘pain tool kit’. These tools enabled him to self manage his pain, restore his confidence and build up his mobility so that he could return to work.
Since then, Pete has been working to help others self manage their pain. He has developed programmes for charities, worked with the NHS Expert Patient Programme and developed his own Pain Toolkit programme with Dr Frances Cole to give people in pain the ability to take control and lead better lives. The Pain Toolkit has been translated into eight languages with over 350,000 copies distributed since 2009, and a version aimed at teenagers has been developed – My Pain Toolkit – which is currently being adapted for Canada.
Pete has taken his message across Europe and around the world through his Pain Toolkit programme, his speaking engagements and his involvement with international pain organisations. His work has also included providing the patients’ perspective for research into pain and clinical training. Pete recently contributed a chapter on the subject for the textbook Changing Pain.
Pete is a true patients’ champion, speaking for the pain sufferer, to the pain sufferer and working to change the thinking of everyone involved in the pain field on how to self manage pain.
Sean McDougall, chair of Pain UK, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Pete Moore has been chosen as the 2014 Pain Champion. Pete’s Pain Toolkit has been distributed to over 350,000 people in the UK and accessed by over 1.5 million online. However, it is just the latest of his many innovations in the world of pain management, including self-help groups that he created for BackCare and profile-raising work that he did for the Expert Patient Programme.
“Pain UK was set up to promote the voice of the person in pain and to provide practical help via its members. Pete exemplifies that philosophy and we are proud to have him as a member and as our newest Pain Champion.”
Dr William Campbell, chair of the British Pain Society, said: “Pete has improved the quality of the lives of people in pain in many countries for over a decade, by providing the ‘tools’ to live with and self manage their pain.”