A traumatic water skiing accident at the age of 19 left Denise Gilbert with a broken right tibia and fibula as well as a torn meniscus in the knee. Despite recovering from the incident, it resulted in post-traumatic osteoarthritis.

Denise continued exercising, even leading a running group, but she soon became stuck in a cycle of knee flare ups that would require RICE treatment (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate), and sometimes physiotherapy. Throughout the years that followed, Denise completely wore away the cartilage on the lateral side of her knee, resulting in a referral to see an orthopaedic consultant.

Denise explains: “The progressive degeneration of wear and tear in the knee caught up with me by 40 years of age with bone-on-bone osteoarthritis. Unaware of the extent of the arthritis, I continued exercising and even ran the London marathon aged 41. Looking back at photos at that time, I can now clearly see the valgus deformity (knock knee).

“I had heard about stem cell cartilage transplantation and chose to try that first (Gel ACI), in the hope that I could go back to running. Unfortunately, the arthritis was too advanced for it to really give much improvement as the bone was rubbing away any new cartilage formed. I tried to run again but it was too painful. The operation did, however, lessen my symptoms and I conservatively managed the knee for three years until it locked again and the pain increased.”