A woman who has seen three generations of her family ravaged by osteoporosis has backed calls for Labour to get on with rolling out fracture liaison services. Anna Craig, 55, witnessed her grandmother and both of her parents suffering the disease’s effects before being diagnosed herself.
She was denied bone scans on the NHS so paid privately. When she was eventually seen by an NHS specialist, further scans revealed she had a spinal fracture. Anna said: ”When I found out about my spine fracture, I just thought about my parents’ lives and how difficult it had been for them.
“I didn’t want that for myself. I was absolutely devastated.” Anna, of Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, remembers her paternal grandmother being permanently bent over with “a huge hump on her back from the collapse of the spine”.
Anna’s father was a magician who continued working into his 70s, before being rushed to hospital one day because he could not move. She said: “He was in hospital for months and months. That’s where they discovered he had a spinal fracture.
“He lost use of his right hand which was quite sad because he never could do magic again. He was really good with cards, he was incredible. He never walked again and broke his hip eventually.”
Anna’s dad died of Covid in 2020. She added: “I always say he actually died of osteoporosis because he wasn’t walking, he couldn’t move. He was 82, very frail, in a dreadful state.”
Meanwhile, Anna’s mum Jenny developed back pain in her 60s but doctors refused to send her for an x-ray. She said: “Over the course of a year her vertebrae collapsed and she had multiple spinal fractures.”
Jenny, now 85, was eventually diagnosed with osteoporosis, but the damage had already been done and has ruined her retirement years, Anna said. Jenny also became bent over, which caused breathing difficulties. She has struggled with pain and the impact on her body image.
Having seen the impact of osteoporosis on her family, and experienced back problems since her late 30s, Anna went to her GP aged 48 and requested a DEXA bone density scan.
She was denied it because this was before her dad broke his hip, so she did not have the necessary family history. A private scan showed osteoporosis and later NHS scans revealed a compression fracture.
Anna now receives monthly injections of a drug called Evenity to strengthen her bones. She sees a chiropractor every six weeks, a personal trainer twice a week, and does regular reformer pilates and strength training.
The mum-of-three is determined to stop the next generation of her family being affected and works with the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) to raise awareness.
She added: “With this bone-building treatment I’m on and everything I’m doing, touch wood that I don’t end up in my mum’s situation. I always feel there are people out there – maybe people who are older – that don’t have the capacity or the ability to fight for their care, push for treatment.”
The Sunday Express Better Bones campaign has fought alongside the ROS for greater access to fracture liaison services, which support people after fractures to dramatically reduce the risk of another, often catastrophic, injury.
Labour pledged ahead of the 2024 election to ensure universal access to services, but campaigners are concerned about a lack of progress.
Ruth Wakeman, the ROS’s director of services, influencing and innovation, said: “For too many people, osteoporosis is only discovered after a fracture has already changed their lives.
“Anna saw the devastating consequences of this condition in three generations of her family before receiving her own diagnosis. Her story highlights why the UK can no longer afford a postcode lottery in fracture prevention.
“Universal fracture liaison services would ensure that every person who breaks a bone gets the assessment and support they need to prevent future fractures.
“These services prevent fractures, save NHS resources, and, most importantly, help people stay independent for longer. That’s why we are calling for fracture liaison services to be rolled out across the whole UK.”
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged last month to look into the delay in rolling out the service.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
