Camilla urges older people to check their risk of developing osteoporosis

The Queen Consort has warned of the dangers of osteoporosis as she urged older people to check their risk of developing the “devastating” bone disease.

Camilla said the illness caused the deaths of her mother and grandmother during a time it was “rarely diagnosed” and “seldom discussed”.

She made her appeal as the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), which she founded in 2019, launched an online questionnaire to show participants how likely they are to develop the condition.

Osteoporosis weakens bones and causes them to break more easily, affecting around 3.5 million people in the UK.

As many people die of fracture-related causes every year as diabetes and lung cancer, yet two-thirds of adults surveyed by the ROS admitted never considering their bone health.

In a statement Camilla 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.

“Now, thankfully, we know far more about the causes, symptoms and available treatments.”

Pointing to the ROS’s questionnaire, she encouraged older people to “discover the easy steps that we can all take to improve bone health throughout our lives”.

The online tool – which asks for a person’s age, ethnicity and family health among other factors – calculates osteoporosis risk and provides tips on keeping bones “stronger for longer”.

Poor bone health means that half of all women over the age of 50, along with one in five men, are expected to suffer a fracture.

ROS chief executive Craig Jones said: “Osteoporosis will affect every other mother; every other grandmother. And too many of us still think men are unaffected.

“The truth is we all have bones and, if we arm ourselves with knowledge, we can keep them stronger for longer.

“It all starts with people understanding their bone health risk and taking action.”