Photo series highlights women with spine condition

Ayesha Jones recalls that, when she was 12, a doctor told her she would "grow up to be a pretty girl with an ugly back."

But she turned to him and said: "It won't be ugly, it will just be different."

Ms Jones had been diagnosed with scoliosis, a condition where the spine twists and curves to the side, and sometimes requires a back brace or surgery.

Now a photographer based in Coventry, she has produced a book that documents 10 women living with scoliosis, as well as images of herself.

Scoliosis usually starts in children aged between 10 and 15, according to the NHS, and it is more commonly diagnosed in girls than boys.

It can cause people to lean to one side, have one protruding hip, or suffer from back pain, although many people have milder curves that do not need treatment.

Ms Jones had the idea for her project when women with scoliosis started sending her their stories on Instagram, after they saw a series of self-portraits she did before and after her surgery.

"With scoliosis, people want to talk about it as it's such a solo thing that they go through," she said.

She put out an open call via the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, as well as on Facebook forums for scoliosis, to find women to be photographed and interviewed. The majority of the ten women are from the West Midlands.

Ms Jones said her book included interviews with one woman who had to wear a back brace at school, while another discussed how she was inspired by her condition to become a psychotherapist and help others.

"[I wanted to show that] people are individuals, not just a number or a condition," she said.

Ms Jones tried different therapies as a teenager, but her curve continued to deepen and she eventually had spinal fusion surgery at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in her early twenties.

She said her curve had since lessened considerably and she was not limited by her condition, but had to exercise regularly or her joints became stiff.

Now aged 35 and the mother of a seven-year-old son, she said it had been "therapeutic" to work on the book and reflect on her experiences.

Ms Jones said she hoped her photo-series would spur more research into what caused scoliosis and more awareness of its emotional impacts.

She has idiopathic scoliosis, where the cause is unknown, and this accounts for around 80% of cases according to the NHS.

Ms Jones said she wanted to "amplify the message" of her earlier self-portraits by photographing several women with scoliosis, adding that women's symptoms were also often overlooked in other health issues such as endometriosis.

"There many conditions that women are suffering from and they are not getting the support they need," she added.

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