Meet the real bionic woman - the mother who has had almost all her joints replaced

By the end of the month, the only major joint in Eileen Brown's body she can truly call her own is likely to be her elbow.

All the rest - shoulder, hip and knees and left elbow - will be replacement ones given to her in 20 years of operations.

That 49-year-old Mrs Brown, who has three grandchildren, can still stand up is a tribute to the bionic technology of the surgeons and her own indomitable spirit.

For much of her life, Mrs Brown has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.

It has damaged her joints to such an extent that only her right elbow and left hip are her own - and the hip is due to go very soon.

A dozen operations and countless procedures meant Mrs Brown had so much metal inside her that she set off airport alarms on a visit to the U.S.

Mrs Brown, of Boldon Colliery, near Sunderland, said: 'I have to put up with horrendous pain, but you just have to get on with things. I have my good days and bad, but you've got to stay positive and never give up.'

Mrs Brown, who lives with her husband Brian, 52, has had all her operations on the NHS at the Sunderland Royal Hospital. 'I've been in hospital so many times they've all kind of merged into each other,' she said.

Most people don't start suffering from the disabling disease until they are in their 40s. But Mrs Brown first went to the doctors in pain in her late 20s.

Initially it was put down to 'growing pains'. She was then diagnosed with depression and put on anti-depressants, before the real cause was identified and the years of surgery began.

'The specialists at the hospital were really surprised I'd been put on tablets for depression - I've never been depressed in my life,' she said.

Mrs Brown has had at least a dozen major operations and countless surgical procedures over the last 20 years to have joints replaced in the shoulder, elbow, hip and knees. She can even tell friends when rain is due because damp weather makes her condition play up.

'I've spent a really long time in hospital and have to put up with horrendous pain, but you just have to get on with things, it's all you can do,' she says. 'I have my good days and bad, but you've got to stay positive and never give up.'

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Good as new: An X-Ray of Mrs Brown's replacement left shoulder...

... and her right shoulder has been replaced too

Mrs Brown's operations began in the late 1980s after rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed in the fingers of her left hand.

About three years later, the pain had become so unbearable it was decided her knuckle should be replaced with a plastic joint.

By the 1990s her wrists had fused together, leaving her unable to bend her hands, then her right knee started playing up.

She said:'At first they said I was too young for a new knee, so I had to have alternative treatments, but that didn't help me.'

Doctors decided Mrs Brown would benefit from a metal knee replacement, and this was shortly followed by her left shoulder being replaced with a metal joint too.

Pain free: Mrs Brown also had her right hip replaced

Mrs Brown's operations began in the late 1980s after rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed in the fingers of her left hand.

About three years later, the pain had become so unbearable it was decided her knuckle should be replaced with a plastic joint.

By the 1990s her wrists had fused together, leaving her unable to bend her hands, then her right knee started playing up.

She said:'At first they said I was too young for a new knee, so I had to have alternative treatments, but that didn't help me.'

Doctors decided Mrs Brown would benefit from a metal knee replacement, and this was shortly followed by her left shoulder being replaced with a metal joint too.

Mrs Brown, seen here with some of the medication she takes, almost died after she contracted septicaemia following a fall

Just before 2000, she started experiencing pain again, and this time it was her right shoulder joint which needed replacing.

Her medical problems took a twist when fell from a ladder while cleaning in 2003 - breaking the metal joint in her left shoulder and the bone in her upper arm.

'I was in agony,' she said. 'I couldn't believe it had happened. Of course it wasn't a case of just resetting my bones back together, that would have been too simple.'

Unfortunately, Mrs Brown contracted septicaemia, and her metal shoulder had to be removed. The infection spread down the left arm, so the upper bone also had to be taken out and instead filled with a special type of padding.

To make matters worse, the infection then spread to her right shoulder, and a section of damaged bone had to be removed too.

Despite being pumped with antibiotics she became critically ill and doctors didn't expect her to survive.

She was read the Last Rites in hospital but miraculously pulled through and made a full recovery.

As a legacy of her problems she can no longer raise her arms above shoulder height. 'It's a pain wearing bras and strappy tops. They just slip down because my shoulders cannot keep them up.'

Mrs Brown went on to have her left elbow replaced after she could no longer straighten it, and she was given a new right hip in December 2006 because she was unable to walk properly.

She said: 'Most people are stuck in bed for about two weeks after they've had a new hip, but I was walking after three days.'

Mrs Brown's most recent operation in April left her with a new type of replacement knee made mainly out of plastic.

She has also been diagnosed with arthritis in her neck, and osteoporosis in the bottom of her spine. But she's keeping her spirits up by looking forward to her 50th birthday later this month.

'I'm on the waiting list for a left hip, so that might come in time for my birthday, you never know.'

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