Easing the pain

To THE professional middle class like me who have long outlived our proletariat ancestors, dementia may well lie ahead, but osteo-arthritis has certainly marked the gathering years.

Currently no drug, medical intervention or therapy alters its progression and many of us rattle with painkillers and know that total joint replacement is only a matter of time.

Thus, news that in five years stem-cell therapy will be available is heartening because so many great medical breakthroughs in the offing will clearly arrive too late for my generation.

(DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place

St Andrews