A Speech by Her Majesty The Queen Clarence House

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a huge pleasure to welcome you to Clarence House today, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

I should like to begin by thanking Craig for his invaluable work with the R.O.S. over the past six years at its helm. We are going to miss him very much, you have taken the charity to another level and you will be much missed by us all. Thank you for all you have done.

As some of you may know, the then-N.O.S. was the first charity that I became Patron of, back in 1994. That same year, my dear mother had died as a result of osteoporosis. In those bad old days, osteoporosis was seldom discussed, rarely diagnosed and usually attributed to old women with so-called “Dowagers’ humps”.

My family and I had little, or no, understanding of this devastating disease and were determined to discover more about it. We failed to comprehend how our mother could suffer so much pain, lose inches in height and yet find no available treatment from the doctors. The terrible problem being that osteoporosis is a silent thief hiding in plain sight.

It wreaks its havoc deep inside our bodies until, too late, we realise that the damage has been done. Without being aware of it, our bones have lost their density and strength until suddenly, a simple, everyday act – picking up a grandchild, slipping over or even sneezing – turns into a life-altering event as our bones shatter.

In a rather strange twist of fate, just down the road from where I lived in those days, I discovered a very small charity called the National Osteoporosis Society, with a tiny team, with one or two people, led by the indomitable Linda Edwards. Over numerous cups of tea, or several glasses of wine, I realised that my family was far from alone. Even today, half of all women and 1 out of every 5 men over the age of 50 will suffer fractures as a result of osteoporosis.

Shocking as that was to discover, Linda not only improved my understanding, but she gave me, my family and many, many others, hope. Her work and legacy have proved to all who might be at risk, that osteoporosis is not an inevitable consequence of ageing.

It is now treatable, thanks to the medicines that have been developed by our brilliant scientists. Even more importantly, it is also preventable, with straightforward steps that we can all take with our diets and exercise.

The R.O.S., since those early days, has gone from strength to strength. For 34 years, their nurses have provided vital support and information via the free helpline. Their Fracture Liaison Services model has been exported to over 60 countries worldwide. And their risk checker tool has, in the last four years, been used by over half a million people across the UK. Four decades ago, all this would have been beyond my family’s, and countless others’, wildest dreams.

In 2016, many of us gathered in this very spot to mark the 30th anniversary of the Royal Osteoporosis Society. On that occasion, I said this, “I can only hope and pray that, with your help, the next thirty years will find a cure for osteoporosis, so that future generations will be spared its ravages”.

We are not quite there yet, but we are well on the way and, for that, I would like to thank you all here for everything that you have done for this charity. Together, we can – and we will – see the end of osteoporosis, forever.