A Lanarkshire man who had to give up work after years of pain brought on by complications from spina bifida says he had been left "living on the breadline" until a local charity stepped in.

Steven Urquhart was diagnosed with the birth defect immediately after he was delivered at Motherwell maternity unit in 1972, and was rushed straight to Stobhill hospital the same day for emergency surgery on his spine.

The condition - which can now be detected during anomaly scans at 18 to 21 weeks - is characterised by incomplete closing of the spine during early development in the womb.

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Risk factors include a low folic acid intake, obesity, poorly managed diabetes, and some anti-seizure medications.

In Mr Urquhart's case, he had spina bifida myelomeningocele, where a membrane sac bulges through an opening in the spine.

It was located near the top of his spine, between his shoulder blades.

Mr Urquhart still considers himself "one of the lucky ones" in an era where little was understood about the condition.

He said: "I was operated on right away and the sac was cut away. It was a success.

"I was in and out of Stobhill for the first five or six years of my life, just to make sure the defect had closed up, and fortunately it had.

"If they hadn't caught it that quickly, I would probably have been paralysed and in a wheelchair."

However, after being discharged from the care of Stobhill as a child, Mr Urquhart said he felt as though he "fell through the system".

In later years, he developed bladder problems - a common side effect of spina bifida - as well as depression.

He also began suffering from joint pain and mobility issues which made his work as a warehouse manager - a job he had held for 25 years - increasingly difficult.

Mr Urquhart said: "It got to the stage where simple things like lifting a box of photocopying paper, I just couldn't do it.

"I kept saying 'if I get an ache or pain, I'm not taking time off, I'm going to keep going'.

"I went on like that for years, but it came to the point - just before my 50th birthday - where everything came to a head, and that was it."

Steven Urquhart said he felt like he 'fell through the system'  (Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times)

In 2021, he was forced to give up work, and in 2022 he went through a divorce.

He found himself living alone and relying on Universal Credit payments, and was increasingly bothered by a "tingling sensation" and stiffness in his neck which had been getting worse since his 20s.

After feeling repeatedly fobbed off by GPs, Mr Urquhart sought advice from Cumbernauld-based charity Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus (SBH) and was put in touch with its health and wellbeing nurse, Caroline Robertson.

She advised that he needed an X-ray and gave him her business card to pass on to his doctor.

Mr Urquhart said: “That’s when the GP finally sat up and listened to me and they put me on the waiting list for the neurosurgeon.

"It is all about being believed and I wasn’t believed for years.”

An X-ray revealed osteoarthritis in five vertebrae in his neck, near the site of his operation as a baby.

He has been told that surgeons will operate if the any of the discs which are deteriorating touch his spinal cord.

Osteoarthritis is a common complication for people with spina bifida and, if diagnosed early, some patients can benefit from treatments to slow the progression of the disease.

Mr Urquhart now takes 1000mg of Gabapentin each day to relieve the pain from his osteoarthritis, tendonitis in his shoulders, and sciatica.

Some days he gets by on "two to three hours of sleep a night" due to the tingling in his neck and can struggle to walk from the bedroom to his living room.

However, he says his situation has been helped "immeasurably" with support from SBH.

Mr Urquhart now meets every six weeks with SBH Scotland's health and wellbeing nurse, Caroline Robertson (Image: SBHScotland)

Thanks to advice from Ms Robertson, his GP has prescribed Tamsulosin - a drug used to treat urinary tract infections, another complication commonly associated with spina bifida - and he has avoided UTIs now for more than a year.

In addition, the charity - which funds a dedicated post within Citizens Advice Scotland to provide financial advice to people living with spina bifida - has helped Mr Urquhart to access disability payments.

His application was successful first time.

Mr Urquhart said: "You can’t live on Universal credit and if it wasn’t for the Adult Disability Payment, I don’t know where I would be.

"I had nearly a year living on the breadline before it got approved and my family had to support me."

He added: "This charity is here. That's what I want to get across to other people living with spina bifida.

"What they've done for me is unbelievable, and I'll do anything I can to repay it. They've kept me sane."

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The charity's CEO, Lawrence Cowan, said: “Steven's story is a perfect example of why SBH Scotland exists.

"Our Health and Wellbeing Service is designed to prevent people reaching crisis points in their healthcare, especially after they move from paediatric to adult services.

"In Steven’s case he only found out about us later in his journey, but we were able to support immediately, and he now knows we are always here for him.

"With our specialist knowledge of conditions like spina bifida—conditions that many GPs may never encounter—we’re uniquely placed to understand the complexities involved and give each person the dedicated time they need to tell their whole story."