Steroids save lives but we have to face up to their side-effects.

A WOMAN I barely know leans across the dinner table and strokes my cheek. 'No wrinkles at all!' she says enviously. 'How do you do it?' It's a compliment I have grown used to in recent months. Despite being in my 50s, my skin is as smooth as a toddler's bottom. But my secret is not Botox. 'Steroids,' I reply. '15 mg a day.' I am one of the quarter of a million Britons who take steroids long-term. They are corticosteroids, which are not the same as the anabolic steroids taken by bodybuilders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]