Breast cancer is a diagnosis heard all too often these days at 13,000 diagnoses a year in Australia.
My problems started in the early 1980s with the introduction of computers in most public service departments.In 1986,
When I was 25, I was living life to the full. Then, literally overnight, I became ill. It was 15 April 1998, a date I will never forget, when I woke up in severe pain. I had to crawl on my elbows and knees to go to the bathroom. I had pain in all my joints – it even hurt to breathe.
My injury happened over two days – August 30-31, 2001 – when I was asked to reorganise the office's new filing system.
That Friday in June 1990 began like any other Friday – two adults, three teenagers, family pets, all heading out. I was totally unaware that this was the day "Super Mum" would die and life as I knew it would be over.
I first incurred a serious back injury at work in 1985. It was not able to be evidence-based for five years (at the time of surgery).
"Fortunately", the pain from my neck injury was so severe that it was taken seriously from the start.
I woke up one morning in 1988 with a sore back.As the pain continued to increase, I consulted my general practitioner who referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. After some tests, I was told that there were no problems and that the pain should go away. It didn't.
I had two major cycling accidents in the 1980s which caused a spinal fracture and severe whiplash.I quickly got over the accidents and was fine until the early 1990s when I started to have migraines. This gradually progressed to daily migraines by 1996.
My first taste of pain and injury was when I was only three years old.We had a car accident and I had my lower lumbar joints damaged as well as whiplash injuries to my neck. No one knew this at the time, though, and by the time I was nine I was having X-rays on my back to find out why I was in so much pain.
Harry Perkins, son of Olympic champion swimmer and Painaustralia Director Kieren Perkins OAM, was diagnosed with chronic migraine at the tender age of eleven.
I was an advisory teacher when I suffered a spinal injury in 2007 that landed me in a Brisbane hospital emergency department.Thanks to a neurosurgeon, I regained the use of my left leg and the crushing pain eased. 
I'd survived the traumas of a major motor car accident, the ignominity of a prostatectomy, and the despair and exasperation of three separate cancers and their harsh therapies, but nothing had prepared me for the greatest challenge of my life, dealing with chronic pain
I injured my neck in 1993 while attending a Scout Jamboree in Canada as a carer for a child with cerebral palsy.My pain symptoms didn't really show up until 1997 when I started getting lots of neck and arm pain. 
It happened on 28 August 2008 at 8.28am. Everything after that is a bit of a blur, but the moment the accident happened will be stuck in my memory forever.
As a chronic migraine sufferer I've lived with pain since I was a small child. With the help of sub-occipital electrodes and an implanted pulse generator (IPG implant) I can now manage my daily pain and rely less on heavy medications.
In 1962 at the age of 21, Renée was involved in a serious car accident that kept her in an English hospital - in a 40-bed geriatric ward - for nearly two years.
September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, still, sunny autumn day.I was in the UK to visit my elderly mother and other family members and had taken the train to London to visit a friend.
It was during a long jump attempt at my school's athletics try-outs when I was nine that I first hurt myself.As usual, I ran and jumped but as I hit the sand I felt pain in what I thought was my ankle.
Before my accident, about six years ago, I worked at a prestige car dealership in Brisbane. This work was physically demanding as well as being quite social. We all had to get on well as it could be quite a pressured environment and humour often kept us going.
6 when I was 17. Unrelated to any incident, I began to experience extreme back pain. I later discovered it was a degenerative disease with no cure, but at the time I thought it could just be 'fixed'.
Katia: Sport injury
I was nine years old when I damaged the ligaments in my left leg in a hurdling accident.After a year of treatment my leg hadn't healed – in fact the pain had worsened and I was diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome.
This was later re-diagnosed as central sensitisation, a hypersensitivity of the central nervous system.
Following my diagnosis, I attended the pain management clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne for a year but after this the pain spread and I developed other problem areas in my body.
I had always been a very active child, and I found that having constant pain inhibited me from simple things like being able to play. I had to give up basketball, tennis and squad swimming.
I feel like I lost most of my adolescence in that I was unable to go out and socialise as my friends did. It was a real struggle to get through year 12 and complete my tertiary studies successfully as I am an aspiring musician. I had to change high schools in order to get the extra care and flexibility that I needed.
The most difficult thing for me was the sense of isolation that I felt from all of my friends and loved ones. I truly felt alone and as though nobody could understand my situation.
This affected my mood and I found that the less that I could do, the less I tried. This obviously lowered my self esteem.
I cannot say enough how scary pain is when one does not understand its cause, or how to treat it. I developed night terrors about pain and situations in which my pain would limit me. In my experience, the psychological effects of pain are just as intimidating as the physical ones.
I experienced many false diagnoses and was referred to many different specialists to "fix" my pain. I endured many treatments which worsened my condition and increased my pain levels.
I also saw numerous health professionals who questioned and denied the existence of my pain and alluded to me being a malingerer. For 11 years, my parents and I tried to find a successful treatment or cure for my pain. When each inevitably failed, I felt that there was simply no successful treatment available.
I was repeatedly told that there was nothing medically wrong with me, and this, in a sense, created an adversarial approach to doctors. In hindsight, it is understandable that my chronic pain was not easily identifiable in the same way as an acute condition.
Finally, I discovered the Barbara Walker Centre for Pain Management at St Vincent's Hospital and in the past 18 months I have gained a sense of independence that I have never before had.
The centre acted as a vessel through which I was able to learn about my pain and take a holistic approach to improving it. I like the fact that I was finally able to empower myself by taking steps personally to improve the way that I felt and, more importantly, I felt like I had some control over my future and my pain levels.
I recently was able to go on a trip around Europe and Malaysia for nearly two months with my boyfriend. This holiday was an experience that I never thought I would be able to either cope with or enjoy. I walked about 10 kilometres every day, swam and rode a bike. I had an absolute ball and am still surprised by what I am capable of now.
I think it's important to mention this trip because people should know that when chronic pain is well managed and understood, the patient can still have a good quality of life. Our situation is not hopeless.