51¶¯Âþ

Your Majesty, thank you.

You’ve described so powerfully the world as it was forty years ago. Osteoporosis lived in the shadows.

If an older woman lost height, developed a hunch or broke a hip, it was considered a sad but inevitable part of growing old. And people endured that pain through gritted teeth. Their independence lost. Their lives smaller. And many of those lives ended far too soon.

But despite that, the disease was rarely discussed. Poorly understood. And for millions of people, there was nowhere to turn. That was the world in which a determined group of doctors came together with Linda in the West Country to say: none of this is inevitable.

When they founded the NOS it was one of the first two national osteoporosis charities in the world. They made the invisible visible. They gave people somewhere to turn. And they dragged osteoporosis into the mainstream.

Science was beginning to transform what medicine could do.

But science can only change lives if people know to ask for it. And by the 1990s, public awareness still lagged far behind the medicine.

Then in 1994, our cause found its greatest ambassador: the person who would go on to become our nation’s Queen.

You turned your family’s loss, Ma’am, into hope for millions of people. And no one has done more than you, Ma’am, to bring osteoporosis out of the shadows. Your relationship with this community is long and unique – and today, you’ve invited us into your home.

On behalf of each and every one of us: thank you.

Fast forward to today and things are changing. We proudly became the 51¶¯Âþ with your blessing, Ma’am.

We doubled the number of people receiving care in Wales through a national rollout of Fracture Liaison Services. And now, with the Government's commitment to bring these life-saving services to every part of England by 2030, we have the prospect of preventing another 135k fractures every year.

I want to thank Minister Sharon Hodgson, who is here.

It is an ambitious undertaking. And it will take all of us – Government, the NHS, clinicians and charities – working together to make it happen.

The ROS stands ready to put everything we have learned, here and around the world, behind that effort. Minister, we want to be your partners in delivering it.

Because if we can bring Fracture Liaison Services to everyone who needs them by 2030, we can take a giant step towards the future Her Majesty has described today: the end of osteoporosis, forever.

All of this was made possible by people gathered here today. People from different chapters and eras of ROS’s history.

I’m very aware of that as my own chapter draws to a close tomorrow. So, from all of us – the ROS team – thank you for everything you have all done for this cause.

Because as Her Majesty rightly says, there is further to go and more work to do. Right now, more than two million people are missing treatment. And we still hear from people who endured up to ten agonising breaks in their spine before finally getting diagnosed.

But the achievements of the last forty years should give us confidence for the next forty.

So today let’s re-commit to that mission, so we can bring about the future we all want. One where everybody – not just some people – everybody - can enjoy a free, long and independent life. One where the importance of bone health is understood and acted upon by people of all ages. And a future where there are no more broken bones and no more broken lives.

Image © Theodore Wood Photography