'Cycling is my medicine'

Cycling policeman Mark Hodson tells us about the chronic condition that has broadened his appreciation for bikes

- By Trevor Ward

When he wasn't riding "undercover" to W catch out cyclist end angering motorists, 'Operation Close Pass' founder PC Mark Hodson was training with his local club Tamworth RMCC. But last autumn he was diagnosed with an inflammatory arthritic condition and suddenly his attitude towards cycling had to change.

"Riding for me used to be all about the suffering and beating my average speed," he says. "I was very competitive and I'd even try to PB the commute to work. These days I ride to lessen the suffering - it reduces the inflammation so it's effectively a medicine for me."

Hodson explains how he first realised he had a problem: "I literally had to pull myself out of the car after a shift patrolling the motorway. I'd had pain in my back and joints for years, which I put down to bad running posture, wearing a stab vest and sitting in patrol cars all day." His GP referred him to a rheumatology consultant who diagnosed his condition as axial spondyloarthritis. He was prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers and told to avoid "triggering" activities.

"I thought I'd be in there for 10 minutes," he recalls of the appointment last September. "Instead, I came out three hours later feeling as if I'd been hit by a freight train. I was told this could mean the end of my career - I had to face the fact I'd probably locked up my last prisoner and driven a police car in anger for the final time."