A MOTHER and daughter are walking tall after the same surgeon operated on them both to relieve symptoms of early-stage arthritis.

Nurse Laura Turner, 29, of Bacup, was born with dysplasia, a congenital condition where the hip joint is not aligned and the ball fits into the socket at an angle, resulting in damaged hip cartilage.

And her mother Janet Kershaw, 58, a retired nursery nurse from Todmorden, had an operation to replace her kneecaps, after being left in such pain she was barely able to tackle stairs.

The pair both went under the knife at the BMI Alexandra Hospital at Cheadle, near Stockport, under consultant Winston Kim.

Laura, who is married to supermarket assistant manager Craig and had keyhole surgery, said: “The surgery has made an amazing difference to my life.

“Before it, getting in and out of a car was painful, or even simply sitting in certain positions. Since the operation, the improvement has been huge and I’ve taken up jogging and riding an exercise bicycle.”

She had undertaken physiotherapy and undergone injections and courses of painkillers before the surgical procedure.

Janet believes that her operation has been life changing, enabling her to go on climbing holidays, take part in a weekly keep-fit class and even complete a 10km charity walk.

She said: “In the past I tried physiotherapy, painkillers and injections, but nothing worked for long. The operation has changed my life. I can swim, go on the treadmill and cross-trainer and I attend a weekly keep-fit class.”

Mr Kim is a specialist in the treatment of early arthritis of the hip and knee, and has trained in world-renowned centres in the US and Canada.

He said: “Cases of hip and knee arthritis are reaching epidemic proportions as the population lives longer. The prevalence of these conditions increases with ageing.

“We are also leading more active lifestyles and have higher expectations of what we should be able to do when we are older, and rightly so.

“Full hip or knee replacements are major operations, and not everyone needs them.”

He says he usually considers non-operative treatments initially, and any surgical work was ‘conservative’, where necessary.