ANITA OJANOTKO, FINLAND

I am 75 years old and worked as a dentist. I was born in Turku, the ancient capital of Finland. I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) myself, and two of my children are also affected. Several other family members have been diagnosed with OI as well.

The Finnish OI Organization was founded in 1979. Currently, it has 333 members, 193 of whom have OI. The organization has always been run by volunteers, even during the times when we received better funding through grants. Unfortunately, we no longer receive such grants, which has forced us to reduce our activities — for instance, we are no longer able to participate in international congresses.

One of the consequences of the lacking funding, is that we have started to send our very popular magazine to the recipients in a digital form.

I still work a little — about twice a month. I am a dentist by profession, but I am also a trained hypnotherapist.

In my free time, I am an amateur actress in my hometown, and I also have a keen interest in genealogy.
In my opinion, research on OI should focus not only on the bones but also on other parts of the body. People with OI can suffer from the same illnesses as others — and sometimes more severely — because our collagen is weaker.

This article was first published in OIFE Magazine 2-2025.