Margaret's story: "An absolute lifeline" — finding support after decades of waiting for arthritis surgery

Margaret Donnelly, 64, from Northern Ireland, says her life was ‘dismantled’ by orthopaedic waiting lists as delays in essential surgery cost her job and left her feeling dependent, depressed and isolated. She says the impact of delays needs to be recognised.

Three decades without the right arthritis support

I was diagnosed with arthritis in 1989 and have spent over 30 years navigating a system that often felt designed to make me give up. I’ve spent decades trapped in a cycle, referral, seen, then discharged because I was ‘coping’, but I wasn’t. I was just surviving, in agony every day.

I spent years given morphine patches or tablets as they referred me back and forth then, in 2011, I told my GP my knee was affecting work and something needed to be done which is when I was sent to a surgeon who explained both knees were bone-on-bone and needed replacing. The system had waited until I was at breaking point before acknowledging the severity of my condition and its impact on my employment, my mental health, my life.

I had my first knee done 12 years ago and hoped to get the second within a year but didn’t. At 53, I’d worked for 20 years as a domiciliary carer and loved my job but my contract was terminated as my knee was so bad. I was nowhere near ready to retire so asked for a different role but they refused. I went from being an active member of the Trust workforce to being stuck in the house on crutches, relying on benefits. I didn’t just lose my job, I lost my livelihood and my identity. I ended up on anti-depressants because my mental health suffered, I stopped going out and relied on support for everything like shopping and housework because standing was a nightmare.

Impact of waiting for knee surgery

Although my knee replacement was a great success, I couldn’t fully feel the benefit as my other knee was so bad, depression set in and I gained weight because I was literally immobile. Then the system used my weight as a reason to take me off the waiting list for surgery on my other knee. There’s a cruel irony in telling a patient they’re too immobile for surgery that would give them back mobility.

By 2016, while still waiting for a knee replacement, my hip began to fail so, by 2022, I was on two separate waiting lists and told that my hip needed to be done first. Out of pure desperation, I went for two private consultations. The surgeon recognised the effort I’d made to lose weight and my right hip was replaced in January 2024 but, because of all of the waiting, the damage was done.

When I saw the surgeon for my other hip in August 2024 he was shocked because my knee had become totally bowed and my leg badly deformed. He did my knee replacement last September but what should have been a standard knee replacement had become complex, high-risk surgery, not replacing a joint but reconstructing a damaged limb. 

Unfortunately my kneecap tore during surgery so I needed an immobiliser brace for three months, complications are the reality of long waiting lists. If I’d been operated on a decade ago when the need was identified, I would not have lost my job, I would not have suffered a deformed limb and I, likely, would not have had to deal with surgical injury 

Support is vital for arthritis patients

I had my second hip done in July 2026 so I’ve now had all four replacements. Despite the complications, my surgery has been life changing and, even though I’m still in pain, for the first time in years there is hope. I’d been totally reliant on crutches for 12 years and, this year for the first time, I was off them and able to go out on my own. 

Long waiting lists are not just a nuisance, they are a factory for disability, turning routine patients into complex, high risk cases. I lost my career at 53 because of waiting. People lose their livelihoods and physical health because the system says they are too young or waits for them to be bone on bone to act. Intervention must be timely to be effective.

I hadn’t heard of Arthritis UK until I saw their pain management course advertised, I’d not known there was that kind of support out there which left me feeling very isolated. After doing the course a few of us realised West Belfast didn’t have a support group so we started one and most of the people who come to meetings say the same things, they have lost their independence and feel very alone. Arthritis UK is an absolute lifeline and I now deliver their pain management courses myself because people need to know that support is available, they are not alone and that their life doesn’t have to come to a standstill, watching everyone live their lives as they wait for surgery.