The Queen has urged the elderly to get checked out for osteoporosis, as the Royal Osteoporosis Society launch the UK’s first Osteoporosis Risk Checker.
The initiative is being supported by The Queen Consort as the organisation’s president, a cause she became involved with after members of her family suffered from the ‘devastating’ disease.
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Camilla at a Royal Osteoporosis Society in 2019
Speaking about the initiative, Her Majesty said: ‘Both my grandmother and my mother died as a result of osteoporosis. At the time, the disease was seldom discussed, rarely diagnosed and was usually acknowledged as an unavoidable part of growing older.’
‘Osteoporosis continues to have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people and the people they love. But now, thankfully, we know far more about the causes, symptoms and available treatments.
Today, on World Osteoporosis Day, I would like to encourage you to “check your risk” and to discover the easy steps that we can all take to improve bone health throughout our lives.’
Osteoporosis is a fragile bone disease that causes painful, debilitating and sometimes fatal fractures in a person’s bones, particularly of the wrist, hip and spine. Currently, 3.5 million people in the UK are living with osteoporosis.
Risk factors include age, gender (women tend to suffer with the disease more), ethnicity and certain conditions like arthritis. The checker takes just five minutes to complete online and offers tailored advice based on the user’s answers.
The new initiative, which was launched on World Osteoporosis Day, consists of an online questionnaire to show participants how likely they are to develop the condition.
Her Majesty became involved with the Royal Osteoporosis Society following the death of her mother, and has been their president since 2001 and supported the organisation for more than 20 years, predating her marriage to Charles.
To mark #WorldOsteoporosisDay, The Duchess of Cornwall reflects on her personal experiences with the disease and commends those working to support people living with osteoporosis.
Watch HRH’s video message in full ? https://t.co/vbAZB2UudQ pic.twitter.com/rEvPzfXaxU
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) October 20, 2020
In 2019, the then-Duchess of Cornwall attended the official launch of the newly-titled Royal Osteoporosis Society, where she spoke about her late mother’s struggle with the condition and revealed that her family and herself ‘were completely devastated, but also, we didn’t understand how somebody could be in so much pain, and we were unable, and the doctors seemed unable, to do anything about it.’
Last year, Her Majesty spoke about her patronage on BBC’s Morning Live, where she said ‘this charity is a one very close to my heart because both my grandmother and my mother died as a result of osteoporosis.’
