Published: 01:00 BST, 9 August 2026 | Updated: 10:08 BST, 9 August 2026
It began with what Harriet Kelsall describes as ‘a dramatic scene’. The mother-of-two, then 46, was out for a run when she stumbled and hit the pavement hard. ‘I grazed my knee and there was blood everywhere,’ she says. ‘Instinctively I’d thrown out my left hand to break the fall – and that was what really hurt.’
But finding that she could still move all her fingers, Harriet decided simply to go home. ‘I used an old wrist support and strapped two fingers together, which was uncomfortable but worked for the time being,’ she says. ‘But after about two weeks, I realised my hand had gone purple and I thought, this isn’t normal.
‘I went to the doctor and a scan revealed I’d broken two very small bones in my left hand and one in my wrist.’
Despite this, Harriet considered the whole thing to be mainly an inconvenience. ‘I was stupid for not seeing a doctor sooner,’ she admits.
However, after telling friends she’d broken her hand from a simple fall, they encouraged her to have a bone density scan. The results showed she was suffering from osteopenia, a bone-thinning condition that precedes osteoporosis – a debilitating condition also known as brittle bone disease.
Affecting some seven million people in the UK, osteopenia causes bones to lose strength but usually has no symptoms, meaning many people have no idea they have it until they break one. Left untreated, it can progress to osteoporosis, which leaves bones so fragile they can fracture after a minor fall or even a cough or sneeze.
‘I’d never heard of osteopenia,’ says jeweller Harriet, now 55. ‘I knew a little bit about osteoporosis, but thought it was a condition affecting only old people.
Harriet Kelsall, then 46, was out for a run when she stumbled and hit the pavement hard.
‘If it wasn’t for my friends pushing me to go for the bone density scan, I definitely wouldn’t have known I had it.’
Since her diagnosis, and on her GP’s advice, Harriet has started hormone replacement therapy (HRT), takes a high-dose vitamin D supplement and has overhauled her lifestyle – all measures proven to help improve or maintain bone density and cut the risk of osteopenia progressing to osteoporosis.
She now exercises about five times a week – combining sessions on her Peloton stationary bike, a weekly run and weight training – while cutting back on refined sugar and increasing her protein intake to support muscle and bone health.
‘I understand now that it’s all about making sure your muscles can support your bones,’ she says.
‘If I do fall over, hopefully my muscles will help protect them.
‘I haven’t had another scan yet to see if my bone density has improved, but I’ve tripped a few times since and been thrown off my paddleboard without breaking anything – which I’m taking as a good sign.’