‘I couldn’t do one press up’: Dame Kelly Holmes on collagen pill that helped her menopausal joint pain

For the double Olympic gold medal-winning athlete, Dame Kelly Holmes is used to being at the top of her game physically – but this all changed a couple of years ago. “I’d been very in tune with my body and into my fitness, but I was getting extreme body pains, especially in my wrists, and feeling a lot weaker than normal – and then one day in the gym, I couldn’t even do one press up,” she tells OK!. “I thought, ‘This isn’t right’.” The Loose Women panellist, 54, discovered that joint pain can be symptoms of the perimenopause and menopause and, after speaking to a doctor, she was prescribed HRT – but it didn’t have the result she was hoping for. “The only reason I wanted to go on HRT was to alleviate the body pains, because for me training is important – and it didn’t,” she tells us. “So I started doing some research online and came across information about collagen, and in particular Ancient + Brave.

I didn’t know much about collagen before but I liked that this brand was high quality and looked good in my kitchen – and I also liked the name, which reminded me of the ancient Olympics!” Dame Kelly has since been appointed as the ambassador for the brand’s newest launch, Noble Collagen, a one-a-day capsule specifically designed to promote healthy joints.The supplement contains type II collagen sourced from chicken, as well as vitamin C, manganese and botanical extract Boswellia Serrata.

A jar of 30 capsules costs £39 from the Ancient + Brave website, or customers can subscribe and save 20%. And in just a few weeks, Dame Kelly noticed a difference, not just improvements in her skin and hair – when collagen supplements are perhaps best known for – but also in her joints.