My bone diagnosis at 27 was complete shock

WHEN Jim Squires was diagnosed with arthritis and Crohn's disease he never imagined a third medical ailment would devastate his life.

- By Jaymi McCann

But aged just 27 he was diagnosed with osteoporosis, caused by the steroids he had used as a teenager to treat his pre-existing conditions.

Put simply, some steroid medications can cause bone to break down faster than it is made.

"I was diagnosed with arthritis when I was nine," Jim said.

"My arthritis and Crohn's disease meant I spent a significant amount of my adolescence receiving both steroid injections and oral corticosteroids.

"I wasn't aware that taking so many steroids could cause osteoporosis, although as I was a teenager at the time it might have been something that was discussed with my parents - it just wasn't something on my radar." Jim, now 35, was diagnosed in 2017 with the bone condition when on a dolphin-watching boattrip in Portugal.

When they hit a large wave everyone was launched into the air and came back down with a crash - but he was left in agony.

An emergency MRI showed fractured vertebrae and a bone density scan confirmed osteoporosis.