At EULAR the audience comprised rheumatologists and associated healthcare professionals working with patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The audience on the Novartis YouTube channel is the general public but targeting patients with AS, carers of AS patients and healthcare professionals.

The animation follows the real-life story of ‘Peter’, a young man with AS. It describes his symptoms and how AS has a devastating impact on his everyday life – sleeping, movement, his studies and his social life.

It is Novartis policy not to show real patients but it is permitted to use their stories.

Not applicable.

[Super]

This story is based on Peter’s real-life experience of living with AS.

[VO]

When I woke up today, I was in so much pain that I couldn’t move a single inch of my body. At the same time all I wanted to do was move so that the pain would stop.

It took me ten minutes to finally get out of bed and ten more minutes to reach the bathroom. Every time I moved a leg forward I screamed. Not like a human but an animal.

I walked to university, a centimetre at a time, holding on to everything I could find in the street.

University is really lonely. I don’t get the chance to socialise with the other students because it would take me the whole break just to get to the cafeteria.

I can’t sleep because of the pain. Lying down is the worst; my joints are pressed between the weight of my body and the pressure of the mattress. Even exhaustion isn’t enough to make me sleep.

What I didn’t know is that this is going to get harder and harder every day. And I know that tomorrow...tomorrow is going to be just the same. I’ve had the same tomorrow for eight

years now.

[Super]

We are working hard to improve the treatment of AS and change the lives of patients like Peter.

[Logo]

Novartis Pharmaceuticals