Queen Camilla given dance tips by Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood

Craig Revel Horwood has praised the Queen for her commitment to the osteoporosis cause, and said she is a good example of how dance can help your bone health.

Camilla began supporting the Royal Osteoporosis Society in 1994 after her mother died from the condition aged 72. She is President of the society to this day.

Strictly judge Craig, a long-standing ambassador for the ROS, praised Camilla for her work, saying: “Her mother suffered terribly and died of osteoporosis, that’s why
she wanted to become ­president of the charity.

“Since she has become Queen that really hasn’t changed what she has stood up for all these years.

“It was her who inspired me to want to get involved as well. She pulled the whole society together.”

Earlier this month, the Queen, 77, held a reception at Clarence House and presented an award to this newspaper in ­recognition of its “outstanding contribution to tackling osteoporosis and improving bone health”.

Our Better Bones crusade was also shortlisted for Campaign of the Year by the Society of Editors. Camilla took the opportunity to share how her mother Rosalind “died because it was never diagnosed in those days and old people were just cast aside”. She said there was an attitude of “Sorry, we can’t do anything about it”, adding that “had she lived nowadays, a lot would have been done about it”.

Choreographer Craig 59, also praised Camilla’s dancing skills, and said that dance is the ideal way of keeping fit and healthy, and helping your bones.

He added: “The Queen loves dancing. When she starts dancing she lights up. She’s a great dancer, she’s fantastic.

“It is a wonderful exercise and can do so much for you. Music is a fantastic inspiration because you can put your favourite music on and dance around doing a weight-­bearing exercise. Suddenly you’re building strength, improving your bone health without even realising it.

“It also releases endorphins, like any exercise does, and that’s the natural happy drug. So you feel so much better. It makes you feel good about yourself – any type of dancing, whether it’s jazz, tap, modern, ballet, anything.” The ROS advises people of all ages “the best way to keep bones strong is to do both weight-bearing impact and muscle-strengthening exercises”.

Craig, who also directs the UK tour of Strictly, added: “You don’t need lots of space, you can do it in literally two square metres. As you’re doing that, it’s building the bone bank. It’s really important to encourage people to just get out there and have a good time with your life, because life can be a huge challenge and exercise like dancing makes everything feel better.”

The Sunday Express last week launched Better Bones for Life to raise awareness of the disease and encourage people to check their risk. More than 400,000 people have now done so on the three-minute risk checker at theros.org.uk/risk-checker, and 49,000 have gone on to receive an early osteoporosis diagnosis as a result.