A speech by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, President of the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) on the bone disease osteoporosis at the National Institutes for Health, Washington D.C.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as President of the National Osteoporosis Society, I would just like to say how delighted my husband and I are to be with you at the N.I.H. today and I would especially like to thank Dr. Zerhouni and Dr. Katz for making this visit possible.



I first became involved with osteoporosis after both my mother and my grandmother died as a result of this devastating disease. Then - only 11 years ago - very little was known in Britain about osteoporosis; it was seldom discussed, rarely diagnosed and usually attributed to old ladies with so-called “Dowagers Humps”!



Women like my mother and grandmother were told that it was something that came with old age, and that there was very little the medical profession could do to alleviate the terrible pain they suffered so stoically.



As you all know, ladies and gentlemen, the number of people diagnosed with osteoporosis is still continuing to rise and the statistics are horrifying - in Britain every other woman over 50 is at risk of getting it and the men don't get away with it either, as it now affects one out of five men over the same age. It actually costs our National Health Service a staggering 1.76 billion in bone fractures alone…



Huge strides are being made both here in America and in Britain in fighting osteoporosis – which makes it essential that the our N.O.S. and the National Osteoporosis Foundation, with the support of the doctors and the vital research teams work together to prevent future generations worldwide from suffering the pain and ignominy of osteoporosis in the future.