Hi, my name is Steve Dickson, and I live in a new city called Preston, in Lancashire, England.

I am forty-four years old, separated, and have a twenty-one-year-old son. I suffer from diffuse scleroderma with lung involvement.

My first recollections of having this disease were in 1993, shortly after my father's death. I noticed my hands were becoming very cold when I walked into shade, even though it was a warm summer day. My fingers would turn white, then blue, then red before returning to normal. This continued for a few months, and even reaching into a refrigerator would bring on an attack.

I know I am one of the "lucky" ones, because my doctor immediately referred me to a rheumatologist. I was given a skin biopsy and had blood tests taken. I say "lucky" because he diagnosed scleroderma straight away from the results. I know a lot of people who have gone years with the same symptoms, yet are not given a definite diagnosis. This does not help when you are trying to claim disability benefits.

It wasn't long before they noticed lung involvement. I managed to continue working in an office environment for the British Aerospace Industry, but finally took medical retirement in August 2005. I now pursue a couple of favourite hobbies, such as birdwatching and geo-caching.

I volunteered to help with the ISN, because I feel I can contribute a lot in the way of support for anybody with this illness, and especially because being a male, I know I am in the minority as there are a lot fewer men who unfortunately get this illness.

My personal story of living with scleroderma is featured in the book, Voices of Scleroderma Volume 3.

In February 2006, I took on the additional role of being an ISN Assistant News Guide. I prepare the ISN's RSS Newsfeed, which delivers our newsroom headlines to people and websites who have RSS newsreaders, such as the Google personalized homepages.

You can also participate in our site development by submitting article suggestions for our newsroom or website with our News Submission Form.

Thank you for reading my story, and do not hesitate to contact me at stephen-dickson@sclero.org, or ISN's Sclero Forums. I look forward to hearing from you!