OSTEOPOROSIS has often gone unrecognised as a major disease - but these staggering facts and figures will leave you in no doubt as to how serious the fragile bone condition really is.

One in three women and at least one in 12 men will develop osteoporosis over the age of 50.

Every three minutes someone has a fracture as a result of osteoporosis.

An estimated three million people in the United Kingdom suffer from osteoporosis.

World-wide there was an estimated 1.66-million hip fractures in 1990 and it is estimated that this will rise to 6.26-million in 2050.

Each year the number of people with osteoporosis seen by doctors include more than 70,000 hip fractures, 50,000 wrist fractures and 120,000 spinal fractures.

Once a post-menopausal woman has had one spinal fracture she is five times more likely to suffer another.

Only a third of people with spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis come to medical attention.

Hip fractures account for more than 20 per cent of orthopaedic bed occupancy in the UK.

Please support the Yeovil Express' FAST Appeal to help fund a new scanner for Yeovil District Hospital in its battle against osteoporosis.