I've experienced severe back pain for almost 20 years, after an incident riding a horse in my teens, which I was told at the time had resulted in me tearing some muscles in my back.

Since then I've had ranges of severity - from not being able to walk, drive, do anything, to just niggling ongoing pain. Over the last couple of years it's been getting worse - to the point where it now wakes me up every couple of hours through the night, which now means I'm tired all the time and very run down.

I'm very active - I have 2 horses, I ride every day, plus general stable duties. I go to the gym and jog regularly. Sometimes these activities hurt slightly, but rarely to the extent I can't do them. It's just the chronic pain at night, and the fact that something's clearly wrong to have had this problem for nearly 20 years.

I have tried numerous remedies - from raiki to hydrotherapy. All offer some level of short-term relief, but nothing long-term.