The Queen has suggested her mother would have received better care today for her osteoporosis condition as she celebrated the career of a leading bone specialist.

In a speech to medics, volunteers and supporters associated with the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), Camilla said the attitude during the period her mother Rosalind Shand had the disease was “sorry, we can’t do anything about it”.

She thanked the group, gathered at Clarence House on Thursday for an awards ceremony, for their work improving the diagnosis and treatment of the bone-weakening disease.

She presented Dr Nicky Peel with the Queen’s Award for Osteoporosis from the ROS, formerly the Duchess of Cornwall Award, in recognition of her work of national importance over many decades and told her: “Nicky, who’s been a star for so many years, she’s been involved for 30 years – I’ve only been involved for 23.

“You do such a wonderful job, please keep on doing it. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

Camilla added: “You know, speaking from experience … my mother died of osteoporosis, not of the actual disease … it was never diagnosed in those days, and old people were just cast aside as old people, you know, ‘sorry, we can’t do anything about it’.

“Had she lived nowadays, you know, a lot would have been done about it.

“It’s thanks to everybody here that so much is being done for osteoporosis and I can’t tell you how much it’s appreciated, not only by myself but by millions of others across the world. So, thank you very much indeed.”

During her career, Dr Peel developed a new assessment model to help improve the evaluation of people at risk of fractures which has since been implemented by other NHS clinics nationwide.

She is an adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on osteoporosis and bone health, an ROS trustee and before recently retiring from the NHS was the clinical lead for the metabolic bone service at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.

The bone specialist also played a leading role in securing cross-party commitment to universal fracture liaison services, which play an important role in identifying, assessing and treating osteoporosis.

Dr Peel said: “It’s a real honour and a privilege to be given this award and I think what’s really lovely is the recognition for doing something which I do because I enjoy it and the cause means a great deal to me.

“As the Queen says, she’s been involved for over 20 years now and I think because it’s a cause which is so close to her heart and something that she has personal experience of from family that (her involvement) has been hugely important for the charity, she’s really helped in raising awareness about osteoporosis.”

Camilla became president of the ROS in 2001, four years after being appointed its patron and she first became a supporter in 1994, the year her mother died.

Sunday Express editor David Wooding and Ruth Sunderland, group business editor of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, were both recognised with a special ROS certificate of appreciation for launching osteoporosis newspaper campaigns.

Camilla added: “Huge thanks to the Sunday Express and the Daily Mail for all their help, because it really has put osteoporosis on the map.

“All I can say – can I just plead with you to just keep going, because people do read it and they do listen, so it makes an enormous difference to a lot of people who would otherwise go undiagnosed.”