NOS Headquarters




The NOS site

After 18 years our aims remain:

To Create Awareness and Prevention of Osteoporosis
To Support Sufferers and their Families
To Raise the Funds to Fulfil Our Aims

The National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) was launched in 1986 and by 1990 the awareness it had already achieved was quite extraordinary. Osteoporosis, however, was still not recognised as the very serious condition that it really is, and the message had not yet reached the general public.

The West Surrey Group was established in 1990 to heighten the general public's awareness of this disease.

A DXA (bone density) scan was, and still is, the best method of diagnosis. However, no NHS hospital in Surrey had a DXA scanner so the West Surrey Group, still quite small at that time, decided that it would raise the funds to have one installed in St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey.

Thanks to the hard work of members, the generosity of a number of industries, local businesses, Trusts, private donations, The Soroptimists of Woking and District, and with the administrative help of the Woking Association of Voluntary Service, £45,000 was raised in 17 months. The scanner was installed in the Nuclear Medicine Department of St. Peter's Hospital early in 1992 and officially opened by the Mayor of Runnymede.

A year later the group funded an upgrade to the computer as it was by then quite slow! Due to increased awareness, the demand for scans was growing. In 1996 the Hospital decided to upgrade the scanner with the very latest, faster model and part exchanged the original for a new one. In 2001 this had a soft-ware upgrade.

Over the years the group has organised five awareness evenings, all well attended by over 200 people and a very successful nurse/physiotherapist study day. In 1999 we successfully launched the Guildford Group, now known as the NOS Guildford and District Support Group. We give talks to professional and women's groups. A number of TENS machines have been donated to the Physiotherapy and Pain Management Clinic at St Peter's Hospital. In 2005 we donated a Physio-Med wide adjustable neurology couch to the physiotherapy section of the Pain Management Clinic. There is a busy help line and a newsletter is distributed to over 300 members three times a year.

Membership of the group continues to grow, giving support and raising funds for local osteoporosis services and NOS research.