CRPS Awareness - The Purple Bucket Foundation Inc., is committed to providing support and concise information relating to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and other Persistent Pain conditions.

This website provides information from professionals (medical, research, allied health, etc.) and lived experience sources about CRPS, pain, treatments, therapies, desensitization techniques, and ideas.

The pain is real and not in your head, it is where you say it is.

We believe you.

The Purple Bucket Foundation Inc. was registered in 2012 by a person living with CRPS and Persistent Pain.

The intention then was the same as it is today; provide support and concise information relating to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and other Persistent Pain conditions.

Much has been learned since our beginning, both by us and the medical community.  More doctors know about pain treatments, we are more aware of the success of such treatments and the communication channels between those who have been diagnosed with Persistent Pain conditions, doctors and specialists are becoming more open, if not we encourage them to be so.

All committee members are unpaid volunteers, working together to build a better future for people living with CRPS and Persistent Pain.  

If you would like to get involved as a volunteer, contact admin@tpbf.org.au

or phone Kim on 0411 147 367 to let us know.

Since registering as a charity in 2012, more than a name change has occurred.

Things like:

• 2024 - We have initiated CRPS Peer Support Groups, including the CRPS Junior Warriors Peer Support Group, which is going well.
  • We commenced our With U 4 Life initiative.
• 2023 – 2024, we worked on the CRPS Needs Project with Central Queensland University and The Australian Pain Management Association.
• 2022 -  We made extra noise about CRPS and Persistent Pain at the Suicide Prevention States in Focus Forum. Things have been changing ever since.
  • We are committed to bringing attention to the rising number of suicides within the chronic pain community.
• 2021 – Having two of our committee members attend the joint Roses in the Ocean Lived Experience Summit and 31^st International Association for Suicide Prevention World Congress enabled our voices to be heard on several topics.
  • We are committed to bringing attention to the rising number of suicides within the chronic pain community.
  • We officially changed our name from “The Purple Bucket Foundation Inc.” to “CRPS Awareness – The Purple Bucket Foundation Inc.”
• 2019 -  Booths at the Australian Pain Society Conference – 39^th Annual Scientific Meeting on the Gold Coast in April and the Rotary Living Expo in Hervey Bay raised awareness about our existence within the medical community and at home.
• 2018 – We signed The Charter (Mental Health & Suicide Prevention) and became financial members of Suicide Prevention Australia.
  • We also held the Amazing Pain in Full Colour for CRPS Awareness event in November at Stockland Hervey Bay. We put BOH on a remote control skateboard, custom-built by Chris Muller, to bring attention to our work. BOH knows how to draw a crowd, whether zipping around on his skateboard or chatting on the streets. Everyone loves a Bucket Of Hope.
• 2017 – Boardman’s Bush Bash Charity Trail Ride
• 2016 – A life-size BOH mascot was made in 2016 by the TPBF crew. BOH raised awareness, educated and entertained thousands & thousands of people at The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival in 2016. There is no doubt BOH draws a crowd and raises awareness.
• 2014 – Our “Bucket Of Hope” was born – created by committee members to help bring life to the cause by getting attention everywhere and anywhere. BOH not only carries an orange ribbon for CRPS Awareness, it also carries HOPE.

Why “The Purple Bucket”?

Due to allergies, the charity’s founder was unable to use any available medications to assist with her CRPS pain, not that any of them seem to work. Back in 2011, her only relief was to soak her CRPS-affected feet in a bucket/tub of warm water with Epsom salts. The Bucket was purple, thus the original name, The Purple Bucket Foundation Inc. We expanded to include CRPS Awareness – in 2021 to ensure our reason for being was immediately understood.

Our Bucket Of Hope

We hope that more people understand the complexities of CRPS every day.

We hope that more people will receive early diagnosis.

We hope more people will receive better treatments and succeed with new therapies.

We hope that research will one day find a cure.

We hope that education & awareness never stops.