Several months ago, Rachael was out shopping, trying on a gorgeous new dress.

“Stand up straight”, said her mother, who was trying to push Rachael’s shoulder, which was slightly protruding, into line.  “Mum that hurts! I am standing up straight” replied Rachael.  Buying the dress and returning home, nothing much more was said about the changing-room.

A promising young opera singer, Rachael led a busy and active life. Since the age of eight, she had suffered from severe migraines. Brought on by too much stress, chocolate or too little sleep, Rachael managed them with painkillers and tried to avoid the ‘triggers.’  With the help of a cranial osteopath who gave regular massages, over the last few years the migraines were gradually becoming less frequent.

However, last summer, around the time of the changing-room incident, the migraines seemed to be getting worse and no one knew why.  When visiting the cranial osteopath, Rachael’s mother mentioned Rachael had looked awkward in her dress and that she was getting worried about her posture. Rachael was asked to bend over and touch her toes – the classic test for scoliosis. The cranial osteopath asked Rachael how much exercise she did then asked to have a word with her mother, whilst Rachael and her sister sat in the room next door.

“What did she say?” nagged Rachael when her mum entered the room.  “She said that you might have scoliosis” replied mum, “a deformity of the spine.”

Booked in to see their local GP, Rachael’s mother was researching scoliosis on the internet to try and find out more information.  The following week on referral from their doctor, Rachael was sitting in a private consultant’s room in London.

Rachael was X-rayed and the images were displayed on a screen.  Shocked to see that her spine was an ‘S’ shape, the diagnoses was confirmed as ‘idiopathic scoliosis’ – a type of scoliosis where the cause is unknown.

Both Rachael and her mother were advised that, at present, her scoliosis was not severe enough to warrant an operation, but to return in four months time when ‘it will be worse’ and be potentially severe enough for surgery. Rachael’s curvature was measured as forty degrees.

A bemused Rachael and her mother were told that surgery would definitely ‘cure’ the scoliosis, though at no point was the procedure for surgery explained. It was too late for a back brace as Rachael had almost completed her growth spurt. Having read up on the condition prior to the consultation, Rachael’s mother volunteered the question of whether physiotherapy might help. “Oh yeah”, replied the consultant, “that might be an idea – I’ll write a letter to the physio.”

Rachael and her mother left the consultation with mixed feelings.  On one hand, both were relieved as they had been assured that scoliosis does not affect the patient’s life expectancy and were advised to carry on as normal. On the other hand, they were confused and not sure what to do next.

“I went away thinking ‘Okay, I’ve got scoliosis, my spine is a bit weird but there’s nothing I can do’,” commented Rachael. “Mum felt like she didn’t want to wait until the scoliosis got worse, and neither did I. And it annoyed me a bit that it was mum who mentioned physiotherapy and not the consultant. After hours and hours of research on the internet, we found Scoliosis SOS.”

Things began to move fast.  Scoliosis SOS had a place available for a course starting the following week.

Rachael laughs, “When I heard that the course would be running over my summer holidays I did some general moaning along the lines of ‘Oh my God! It’s going to take up all my summer!  But then I thought ‘it’s only four weeks and I’ll really benefit from it in the future’.”

Travelling down to the consultation with Dr Olga, the clinic’s resident Doctor, both Rachael and her mother were feeling positive. At the clinic, Rachael was assessed, scanned and advised that the treatment could benefit her condition. The consultation was on the Tuesday and a motivated Rachael started her course the following Monday.

For the first week or so Rachael stayed in a hotel near the clinic with her mother as her brother and sister were staying with their cousins while her brother was on a football course.  The following week, the whole family arrived on a boat (a Sealine 42) and moored up in Woodbridge.  Rachael stayed with her family on their boat for the remaining three weeks with Dad commuting to London for work.

“The first week of the course was hard work, really hard work, and I came home exhausted every day.  By the third week the exercises became easier and my tummy muscles are really strong now,” said Rachael, “But I came back home to Amersham one weekend to see Grandma and she was shocked because my posture had completely changed!”

There were quite a few people the same age as myself on the course at Scoliosis SOS, mainly girls and everyone got on. I’d never met anyone with scoliosis before – in fact, I’d never even heard of it. Now I know I’m not on my own.”

When the four week course had finished, Rachael left feeling more confident in herself and retuned to school.  When she first found out about her scoliosis, Rachael had tried to hide it, only telling a few close classmates.  Now, with a new found confidence and awareness of her condition, Rachael began speaking up.

“I started to notice that the chairs in school are actually bad for my posture.  One day I used a special chair in drama and the teacher asked me why I was sitting on it. In front of everyone, I told them that it was because of my scoliosis. I just felt more ‘myself’ that everyone knew.”

“People didn’t really know what Scoliosis was. When I told one friend she said ‘Oh my God, are you alright?’, then went running off to check her own back!”

Rachael now exercises half an hour each day in line with the clinic’s recommendation having assembled all the wall bars and other equipment in the gym at home.

“It’s hard to fit in the exercises as life is very busy and when you get home all you want to do is relax, but I know it’s worth it,”  comments Rachael.

And Rachael’s also noticed an unexpected side affect. “My singing has also improved. Because I didn’t know I had scoliosis before, I just sang, but now the exercises have improved my lung capacity, meaning I can sing better. My teacher has noticed it too.”

Rachael was lucky enough not to experience the crippling pain that is often associated with scoliosis. Due to the painkillers which she was regularly taking for her migraines, it is difficult to know how much back pain they masked.  However, since attending the clinic, Rachel has experienced fewer migraines and has only experienced a small amount of back pain - only when she has not completed her exercises.

Rachel feels positive about the experience and offers the following words of advice to anyone in a similar situation,

“If any of my friends said that they had scoliosis, I would make them visit Scoliosis SOS there, I really would.  I learnt loads about my condition – I thought it was just about the spine but I learnt about how it affects other parts of the body too, like the rib cage. I realised that the exercises really work. I feel a lot more confident, can stand up straight and am an inch and a half taller – now I’m taller than some of my friends!”