Ms. Kerry Mace

Kerry Mace has been living with Arthritis for about 50 years, starting around 10 years old, misdiagnosed at 15 with Lupus, changing to Sero Negative Rheumatoid Arthritis at age 21, her journey has been one of medications and surgery over the years. Kerry has been involved with support groups with Arthritis & Osteoporosis WA (AOWA) for almost 30 years, her involvement with AOWA lead to becoming a peer leader with Camp Freedom, their camp for kids 7-17 with all forms of Musculoskeletal conditions, she has hardly missed a camp in 24 years and for the past 9 years has been the Camp Coordinator, presenting a Consumer paper at the 2016 EULAR Conference in London on “25 years of Camp Freedom”. Her passion for change in the health system led to involvement with various organisations as a consumer representative, being a member of the inaugural Fiona Stanley Hospital Consumer Advisory Council for 6 years, chairing for the last 4 years of her tenure. Her consumer representative activities led to a position with the Consumer & Community Involvement Program, a platform for the WA Health Translation Network, connecting Consumers with Lived Experience and Researchers to work together in research projects. Kerry is also a member of the Arthritis Australia Consumer Advisory Panel.