Kids with scoliosis may miss out on early diagnosis in the absence of a school screening program, and Katie Vijums-Greenacre is calling on parents to detect the condition.
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Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine which, left untreated, may have serious health effects. It usually presents during puberty, and girls are much more commonly affected than boys.
"It's more common than you would expect, but very few people with scoliosis need any treatment," Ms Vijums-Greenacre said.
"Early intervention and early diagnosis is the way to get the best prognosis.
"If a child is found to have a more significant curve there are early intervention treatments available such as bracing and physiotherapy. In extreme cases, people do have to have surgery."
Ms Vijums-Greenacre had to have eight vertebrae fused, due to her spine "twisting like a rope".
"I had a very unusual case," she said.
"Mine was determined at school screening in year 7 as very mild. I was on monitoring for a long time, and not too much changed.
"It was unusual in the way that when I hit my 20s, it deteriorated rapidly, and started to rotate on itself."
She stressed that without early detection, her experience could have been much worse.
She said there were some simple ways to check for scoliosis in children.
"If they are doing a front bend, you can sometimes see the curve in the spine," she said.
"Other things to look out for are uneven hips, rib prominence on one side, a shoulder much higher than the other, uneven legs and a head tilt.
"In the majority of cases, by the time growth has tapered off after puberty, there shouldn't be much more progression of the curve."
The Scoliosis Australia website has free resources for parents, to help detect scoliosis.
