SHE looks a picture of health, but 35-year-old Joanna Hawkes has the bone density of her elderly grandmother.

During the past three and a half years, she has spent more than 40 hours in fracture clinics, had ten x-rays, two MRI scans, two CT scans and has spend a third of that time in plaster.

For Joanna who lives in Bournemouth, has osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become brittle.

After a couple of unexpected breaks, including what she thought was a dislodged rib while being tickled, she asked a chiropractor friend to help by “popping” her self-diagnosed dislodged rib back in.

She explains: “He assessed me, he x-rayed me, then he confirmed I had broken two ribs and he wouldn’t be ‘popping’ anything. The low impact break caused him to scan me to provide some evidence to ask for a full axial DXA scan which showed I have the bone density of my elderly grandmother.” Joanna, who is now writing a PhD about her experience, has always enjoyed an active lifestyle. She played hockey until her early 20s, she lifts weights in the gym and she loves snowboarding, jogging and paddle boarding.

She adds: “The term osteoporosis has a stigma, a preconceived picture of the classic post menopausal patient. “Well I am 35, fit and healthy. I am not suffering with the condition. Osteoporosis does not define me but it is a condition I live with. But it has consequences for my life course and it is an element of my future which scares me.”

Joanna is now an ambassador for The National Osteoporosis Society which this week laun-ched its awareness campaign to raise awareness of bone health called Stop At One.

According to its research, the south west has one of the best diagnosis rates across the UK.

But the study also suggests that GPs and hospital staff still fail to instigate conversations about bone health with those at risk.

Stop at One encourages people to find out more about osteoporosis by using online resources including a bone health quiz.

n Women over 50 break a bone every two minutes.

Around 2.3 million women over the age of 50 in the UK have osteoporosis, and women in the south west are incapacitated for an average of 54 days every time a bone is broken.

Contact the National Osteoporosis Society at nos.org.uk/stopatone or call 0845 450 0230.