Fresh off a lighthearted visit to the famous Heywood Hill bookshop, Queen Camilla’s week took a more solemn turn on Wednesday, July 15 as she shared some rare comments about her personal grief. The Queen hosted a reception in the gardens of Clarence House to mark the 40th anniversary of her patronage the Royal Osteoporosis Society, and she opened up about the pain her family faced following her mother’s death.
Queen Camilla has been involved with the charity since 1994, telling the guests at Clarence House why the organization was so close to her heart. “That same year, my dear mother had died as a result of osteoporosis,” she said.
The disease results in weakened bones, making people highly susceptible to sudden, unexpected fractures. Queen Camilla's mother, Rosalind Shand, died from the disease at the age of 72, and The Queen's maternal grandmother also died from osteoporosis in 1986.
“In those bad old days, osteoporosis was seldom discussed, rarely diagnosed and usually attributed to old women with so-called ‘Dowagers’ humps,’” Camilla shared. The Queen admitted that she and her family “had little or no understanding of this devastating disease” at the time, and became “determined to discover more about it.”
As patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society, Queen Camilla has raised awareness for the disease and celebrated its wins, but noted that there is still much work to be done. Today, “half of all women and one out of every five men over the age of 50 will suffer fractures as a result of osteoporosis,” as The Queen said in her speech.
Her Majesty shared how her family “failed to comprehend how our mother could suffer so much pain, lose inches in height and yet find no available treatment from the doctors,” but said that the National Osteoporosis Society, which later became the Royal Osteoporosis Society, made her family feel “far from alone.”
It's a disease Her Majesty referred to as “a silent thief hiding in plain sight,” noting that osteoporosis “wreaks its havoc deep inside our bodies until, too late, we realize that the damage has been done.”
However, there is hope. Although Queen Camilla admitted a cure isn't in sight just yet, she said “we are well on the way,” adding, “Together, we can— and we will—see the end of osteoporosis forever.”
