Matt Hancock helps the Sunday Express Better Bones Campaign (Image: Getty)
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has thrown his weight behind the Sunday Express Better Bones marketing campaign.
He is asking on the Government to begin “preventing problems, not just fixing people afterwards”.
The distress precipitated to sufferers who find yourself breaking bones and needing hip and knee replacements – and the next price to the NHS – might be averted if the Government elevated funding into the prognosis and remedy of osteoporosis earlier than it's too late, argues Mr Hancock.
Fractures are the fourth worst reason for untimely dying and incapacity. Osteoporosis weakens bones to the purpose they will break simply.
Half of girls and a fifth of males over 50 will endure a fracture attributable to osteoporosis.
One in 4 who are suffering a hip fracture dies in a 12 months, and eight in ten might want to a strolling stick.
READ MORE: Support soars for Express campaign to wipe out 'silent killer' osteoporosis
The Better Bones marketing campaign, along side the Royal Osteoporosis Society, is asking for an additional £30million in funding every year to enhance the standard and protection of specialist fracture centres – referred to as Fracture Liaison Clinics.
But a postcode lottery means some areas of the UK are usually not lined by one and others have inadequate sources.
Our marketing campaign is asking for all over-50s to have entry to devoted bone specialists at these clinics in addition to a Fracture Tsar appointed to every British nation.
It is estimated that the additional measures would save 8,000 lives over 5 years and slash £665million off NHS spending.
Mr Hancock is only one of 140 MPs and Peers now backing our marketing campaign, together with 716 medics.
He mentioned: “For the NHS to thrive in the 21st century, we’ve got to be better at preventing problems, not just fixing people afterwards.
ROS CEO, Craig Jones, greets Queen Camilla (Image: Getty)
“That means stopping breaks and fractures, not just replacing hips and knees. Osteoporosis clearly puts people at a much higher risk of breakages.
“These proposals from the ROS are what the NHS needs to keep people healthy and make sure we reduce demand on the NHS.
“I wholeheartedly support this campaign, and I urge Sunday Express readers to support it too.”
About 3.5 million individuals within the UK endure with the situation, however most are undiagnosed.
If undetected osteoporosis results in bone fractures all through the physique which worsen because the illness progresses. Yet extremely efficient medicine is on the market.
In areas with Fracture Liaison Clinics, sufferers who've suffered a fracture will be referred to bone specialists and examined for osteoporosis utilizing a DEXA bone density scan.
They will then be given remedy and way of life recommendation.
Celia Gregson, Professor of Healthy Ageing and an knowledgeable in osteoporosis, mentioned attributable to poor care, following an preliminary fracture affected person well being deteriorates by the point they're referred to her and have typically suffered a damaged hip.
“Many patients who have had a fracture in the previous decade – who have had plenty of time to be given medication to prevent a subsequent fracture – wind up under my care with the biggest bone in their body broken.
“Their life usually changes forever after this: 80 per cent never get their lives back and 28 per cent die within a year – a worse mortality than most cancers.
“Breaking a hip is a massive physiological insult and the risks of operation in the elderly are significant. Post-operatively people often develop delirium, lose weight, muscle, mobility and don’t get back to where they were.
Many end up in care homes.
“It is unforgivable we have not done something to prevent this. We have cheap and effective drugs. A hip fracture is an extremely painful injury. It’s inhumane. It is great that a national newspaper is advocating for fracture liaison services because they are so important.”
The Government is now reviewing its Major Conditions Strat-egy and “how to prevent, diagnose, treat and manage the six major health conditions”.
The findings are anticipated till January and even there is no such thing as a indication osteoporosis will get the funds wanted.
Craig Jones, CEO of the ROS, mentioned: “Every week we’re building momentum.
Dozens of doctors are fighting locally to get these life-saving fracture services set up.
But since there’s no national mandate resources get diverted elsewhere.
“Yet every day 200 people suffer a life-threatening hip fracture.
“It shouldn’t take the Govern-ment six months to make their mind up about this.”
Campaigner: Actress Felicity Kendal (Image: Getty)
Actress Felicity Kendal has informed how watching her mom “shrinking” made her a passionate campaigner concerning the horrors of osteoporosis.
The actress says her mum Laura, who died aged 82, turned remoted and afraid of going out due to the brittle bone illness.
She is now decided to forestall others falling prey to the situation which might result in dying and incapacity.
Felicity, 76, is an envoy for the Royal Osteoporosis Society and is backing the Sunday Express Better Bones marketing campaign, launched in partnership with the charity.
The star additionally revealed she fears she too would possibly develop the illness and be unable to select up her grandchildren.
So she follows a way of life that strengthens and protects her bones.
The TV and theatre favorite, greatest identified for her function as Barbara Good in Nineteen Seventies sitcom The Good Life, says of her assist of the ROS and the Better Bones marketing campaign: “Joining this charity was a salute to my mum. I wanted to know more and help people.
“In my mother’s lifetime it was very much accepted as, ‘Oh, well. I’m old, and that’s what happens’.” Felicity is anxious on the ignorance about osteoporosis, regardless that assessments and medicine can be found.
“I can’t remember any of my friends saying, ‘Have you been tested for osteoporosis?’ It isn’t one of the things people do so that’s why this campaign is so important.
“So thank you to the Sunday Express for putting out the message and just being so positive about helping people. Knowledge is power.”
Speaking of her mom, who ran a touring theatre firm in India alongside together with her father Geoffrey, Felicity remembers how osteoporosis took its toll.
Felicity Kendal with The Good Life forged (Image: Getty)
“She was very healthy all her life. She was lively and agile and did yoga way before it was fashionable.”
But she continued: “There was a definite shrinking. When you went to hug her you’d miss. She did shrink quite exceptionally and that was the impact of the osteoporosis.
“It was a shame because I think she would have very much liked to run around until she dropped. I certainly think she became more conscious of a change in her mobility and she automatically stopped moving as much.
“Then you don’t go out and that is what happened with my mother.
“She went from someone who was very energetic and did yoga and walked upright to having the symptoms of osteoporosis and getting smaller and smaller.
“My idea of hell on Earth is not to be able to go out, or not to be able to do things physically for myself.”
Faced with these fears Felicity, who turned a grandmother at 50, remembers: “I was 50 for my first grandchild and I started doing bone density exercises around then. I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I won’t be able to pick them up out of the car as some of them are big and heavy’ and so I took action and started doing more exercise, as I’d seen how sad it was for my mother.”
Felicity declares herself to be a grandmother of 13, together with two kids from certainly one of her two sons, her late sister Jennifer’s grandchildren and people of late associate Michael Rudman.
Felicity has not been recognized with osteoporosis however nonetheless stays wholesome by strolling together with her Schnauzer pet Rufus, doing yoga and serving to together with her grandchildren.
She defined: “I have bone density scans and that’s because I want a warning ahead if I need to up my exercise and change my diet. Muscle mass helps bone density. I do regular exercise and walking, which is very important, and jogging slowly.”
Felicity, who was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, added: “As you get older one mustn’t think, ‘I will just sit down. I’m too old to do that’. I say this to myself, ‘Come on, stop it. Don’t sit down’.
“We are all living longer. Let’s enjoy it. To actually just say, ‘I am going to be super fit at 80 or 90 or whatever I choose to be. I‘m not giving in’.”
Sarah Wilson suffers from osteoporosis (Image: PA)
Sarah, 50, from Woodcote,Oxforshire, is married with two sons, aged 18 and 15, and a 10-year-old daughter. She says osteoporosis has had a huge effect on her psychological well being:
“In December 2020, I fell over while I was walking. It wasn’t a big fall, but it resulted in a fractured shoulder, which I’d broken in four places.
“At the time a private physiotherapist encouraged me to request a DEXA scan, explaining that due to early menopause and a severe fracture from a simple fall, I might be at risk of low bone density.
“I had my scan in June 2021. One day I bent down to put some washing in the machine and felt a strange sensation in my back, as though everything was ‘out of place’, then severe pain in my back. I received an osteoporosis diagnosis over the phone, but when I asked if my back pain was linked to this I was told it wasn’t.
“My pain was so severe I could hardly stand or walk and I couldn’t lie on a bed.
“My GP kept dismissing it as muscular, but eventually referred me to a specialist. I was given an MRI which showed I’d suffered eight spinal fractures as a result of osteoporosis. I live with chronic pain and walking is difficult. I never thought I could get osteoporosis at my age. When I first started fracturing, aged 48, I’d been a busy working mum-of-three. It was not a health issue that ever entered my head.
“I felt old before my time. It was just awful. There should be more awareness about protecting bone health from an earlier age. I didn’t have a clue.”
THE CRISIS
● Two-thirds of people that want osteoporosis medicine are usually not getting them
● Fracture Liaison Services cut back the chance of a second break by as much as 40 %
● More than 4 in 10 in England shouldn't have entry to an FLS
● Fractures attributable to osteoporosis have an effect on half of girls over 50 and one in 5 males
● 70 % of spinal fractures by no means come to medical consideration, that means 2.6 million persons are struggling
● Spinal fractures are a fundamental driver for individuals leaving the workforce – and in addition a pink flag for a future hip fracture
● Total FLS protection for individuals over 50 would stop 74,000 fractures, together with 31,000 hip fractures over 5 years
● The price would see £3.26 returned for each £1 invested
THE SOLUTION
● Give all over-50s entry to devoted bone specialists
● £30m further funding into providers for England, Wales and Scotland
● A Fracture Tsar appointed in every of Britain’s nations
HOW CAN YOU HELP
Write to your MP or different elected consultant and ask them to affix the listing of supporters for our Better Bones marketing campaign to steer the 4 governments throughout the UK to enhance the inhabitants protection and high quality of FLS.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society has created a template letter that you need to use to ask them to assist the marketing campaign. You can discover it on the ROS website.
The ROS has additionally generated a map to disclose the FLS ‘postcode lottery’ throughout the UK.
If you reside in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you possibly can write to each your MP and your devolved consultant.
Politicians, whether or not within the UK Parliament, Welsh Senedd, Scottish Parliament or Northern Ireland Assembly, all have a major affect over well being coverage and priorities.
The extra Parliamentarians who assist our marketing campaign, the higher our likelihood of success in our purpose of enhancing the inhabitants protection and high quality of FLS.
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