ALBERT Smith felt a searing rush of pain along the length of his spine as he bent down to help his wife Lona off the gound. She had tripped and fallen off the kerb and he had run to her rescue.

But to his bewilderment, he couldn't get himself back into a standing position after reaching for her hand, and the simple movement left him in complete agony.

Both Albert and Lona were on a celebration holiday in Spain to mark Albert's retirement from the Durham Police force after 32 years as a police inspector.

Yet both wound up spending their holiday doubled in agony and they made a beeline for their GPs as soon as they got back home to Murton Village, County Durham.

It was Lona's twisted ankle Albert was concerned about; he only mentioned his bad back to the doctor in passing. He expected it to get better and reckoned it was nothing more than a slipped disc or pulled muscle, but when he began to feel pain merely from walking, he thought he ought to mention it to a doctor.

When the X-ray team at the Freeman's Hospital, Newcastle, told him he had suspected osteoporosis, it left him completely winded. "Like so many others, I thought osteoporosis only affected old women, not men," says Albert, 59, who was diagnosed with two collapsed vertebrae, as a result of the disease, at the age of 51.

Since then, he's made every effort not to let it hinder his life, but certain adjustments have to be made. Albert had planned to start a second career after his holiday in Spain, but those plans had to be shelved for good. He will never be able to work again, but he tries to stay active. He's lost an inch off his former 5ft 10ins frame but he shouldn't lose much more. He still manages the gardening and a good bit of walking, though, sadly, picking up his three little grandchildren or horsing around with them on the floor is no longer a possibility.

On a good day, he can spend time pottering in the garden and walking for up to an hour. On a bad one, he takes to his bed and stays there until the pain subsides.

The most worrying part of it is the lack of any of the symptoms of brittle bone disease and the mystery of why it affected Albert but no other members of his family. Until the incident in Spain, he was a sturdily-built man who never suffered from back pain in his life. He gave up smoking years ago, his diet was balanced and, though he could never boast of an incredible physical fitness, he had always been strong.

Albert's hips were found to be worse than his spine. His big fear was that he could be left wheelchair-bound, as some osteoporosis suffers are.

"I've always tried to keep a positive outlook and tried to not let it change my life too much, but it is obviously going to change somewhat," he says. "Initially, it was really difficult to adjust to the new pace and the plans I'd had for my retirement had to be changed completely.

"I'm careful about what I do and I try never to put myself in a situation where I could possibly break a bone. And now, more and more, I find no matter how well I plan, I will need complete rest at some point in the day to get rid of the aches and pains."

Joan Stephinson's illness hit her equally unexpectedly. She had just come back from a dream holiday in Australia with her husband Colin when she felt excruciating pain as she bent to pick up a suitcase. When it got too painful even to use the pedals in her car, she went for an examination where she was told she had osteoporosis.

Joan hadn't even heard of the disease and she'd certainly never felt a twinge of any serious pain before then, but the diagnosis made sense.

Looking back, she firmly believes her mother and grandmother were undiagnosed sufferers and she knows her younger sister, Laura, and late brother, Eric, were diagnosed with it.

"My mother and grandmother were always breaking bones. My mother once broke a bone just by turning over in bed," says Joan, 63, from Bournmoor, County Durham.

Until she was struck by the disease at the age of 54, Joan was fighting fit. A dance enthusiast, there was rarely a night when she wasn't out disco or ballroom dancing. Life for her now is far more static than she'd like it to be she has to take someone shopping with her, park as near to the shop door as she can and, like Albert, miss out on picking up her two grandchildren.

Joan is nervous about carrying anything and she's been told some people have broken bones just by coughing or sneezing. She can't sit in one position for more than five minutes and her greatest loss is having to forego visits to the theatre, or, when she does, being forced to sit in an aisle seat, taking regular walks out of the auditorium so her body doesn't get too stiff.

But like Albert, Joan's thankful for the agility she's got. She lives life to the full and even though she can't pick the grandchildren up, she's found other ways to give them love.

Both Joan and Albert are grateful their osteoporosis was caught when it was. Who knows how critical it could have been otherwise?

* You can contact the Durham Osteoporosis Society, of which Joan is general secretary, on 0191-385 3708 or attend meetings held every third Tuesday at 7.30pm in Dryburn Hospital Educational Centre, Durham