TV star Anthea Turner has called for a nationwide NHS screening programme to help prevent more women from developing osteoporosis. The debilitating bone-thinning condition impacts nearly four million people in the UK, 80 per cent of them women.
Sufferers have a heightened risk of fractures, immobility and chronic pain – but with early diagnosis, care and advice they are avoidable.
Anthea, 64, is backing the Sunday Express Better Bones campaign, which has won a commitment from Conservative and Labour leaders to provide scans for all over-50s who suffer a fracture.
She said: “It is a superb crusade which shines an important light on an issue we all need to pay a lot more attention to.” But the former Blue Peter presenter wants to go further and offer scans as a matter of routine.
She said: “I am campaigning for a national screening programme to be introduced in the same way it is now normal to be checked for breast or bowel cancer.
“We need screening because it is costing the NHS £2.5billion a year – that’s £6,849,315 a day – to treat people with a condition which is entirely preventable. Think of the precious resources saved, pain avoided, and deaths prevented.”
Anthea was diagnosed with osteopenia in her 40s, a less serious condition which can eventually lead to greater bone fragility, increased risk of fracture and, if undetected and left untreated, osteoporosis.
Her condition was diagnosed during routine health screening prior to filming a TV show. “After it came to light, I made an appointment with my GP,” she said.
“But the best he could offer was some calcium supplements and general health lifestyle advice such as, don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, eat healthily.
“I’m not a smoker or a drinker and I’ve always had a healthy approach to eating. He said I should just keep my fingers crossed that it didn’t get any worse.
“Back then no one talked about it. Osteoporosis was just treated as an aspect of aging, like grey hair or needing reading glasses.”
Anthea went to the private London Osteoporosis Clinic which helped her with guidance about weight bearing and resistance exercise, dietary and lifestyle support to stop her condition from progressing.
She has also teamed up with consultant rheumatologist Dr Taher Mahmud who heads up the London Osteoporosis Clinic to share her experiences.
She has also taken on an advisory role with the Global Osteoporosis Foundation to lobby for greater public awareness, a national screening programme and better health professional advice about the range of ways osteoporosis can be avoided.
The Sunday Express Better Bones campaign has secured pledges from the Government and from Labour to fund specialist fracture clinics in all NHS trusts in England by 2030.