Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, has written a very personal article about her mother's death. She is seen in this file photo last October wearing a brooch given to her by the National Osteoporosis Society - of which she's president currently - on her 60th birthday. (Photo: Anwar Hussein/WENN.com)
In a very personal article, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, discussed the death of her mother.
“Seeing someone you love die slowly, in agony, and knowing nothing about the disease that killed them is heartbreaking. This was my mother 17 years ago, and the disease was called osteoporosis,” Camilla wrote in the article, which appeared Tuesday in the Daily Mail newspaper.
“My mother was only 72. In those days, osteoporosis, a crippling bone disease, was seldom discussed, rarely diagnosed and usually attributed to old women with so-called Dowager’s hump. My family and I watched in horror as my mother shrunk in front of our eyes. She lost about eight inches in height and became so bent she was unable to digest her food properly, leaving her with no appetite at all. The local GP was kind and sympathetic, but he, like us, was able to do little to alleviate the terrible pain Mama suffered so stoically,” she wrote.
“In her later years, she could not breathe without oxygen or totter around her beloved garden on her Zimmer frame. I believe that the quality of her life became so dismal, and her suffering so unbearable, that she just gave up the fight and lost the will to live.”
Her mother’s death pushed her to become involved in her first ever patronage “and I’m happy to say I am still flying the flag.”
She also talks about huge strides in medicine that are helping people with osteoporosis cope with the disease.
“We still have a mountain to climb,” the duchess and president of the National Osteoporosis Society wrote. “I can only hope we will achieve the necessary support to help reach the summit.”