SPONSORED BY ALWAYS DISCREET FOR SENSITIVE BLADDER

But as she leapt up to do a star jump she was horrified to notice a tiny leak of urine.

‘I was just 26, I couldn’t believe what was happening,’ she remembers. It was the first sign that she had developed adult incontinence (AI).

But such is the taboo surrounding the condition, it was another three decades before Jackie plucked up the courage to go to her doctor.

BUSY MOTHERAt first Jackie, now 60 and a retired health insurance worker from Newcastle upon Tyne, tried to do the pelvic floor exercises her midwife told her about.

But as a busy mother of two small boys, Jackie often forgot to do the exercises, and soon gave up.

‘For years, the little accidents only happened when I did exercise. As the leaks became slightly larger, I started using panty liners when I did a Step class.’

But she never told a soul.‘I thought I was the only one and

I felt very ashamed of it - I associated it with something old women had, not me in my 20s.’

WHEN Jackie Houstoun resumed her exercise classes shortly

after having her second baby, her main concern was losing the baby weight.

ADULT INCONTINENCE: THE FACTSADULT INCONTINENCE: THE FACTS

‘I was so embarrassed, I didn’t go to the doctor for 30 years’

Jackie didn’t go to the doctor because she thought she had to ‘get on with it’. But with the onset of her menopause, in her fifties, her incontinence got worse.

She says: ‘My partner Rob and I were in a restaurant in Spain with friends, laughing a lot, and suddenly I noticed that my jeans were completely soaked. As we left I had to ask Rob to walk behind me to cover me up - it was awful. I was so embarrassed.

‘That was the start of it, and then it began to take over my life. I needed to go to the loo all the time, even if I’d hardly drunk a thing. If I was going to the supermarket five minutes’ drive away, I’d go to the loo just before I left, again at the supermarket, and I’d be bursting as we drove home.’

Her accidents began to happen not just during exercise, but also if she laughed, walked up a hill, or even sat down for too long.

‘When I laughed I’d often have an accident,’ she says. ‘Then I couldn’t get off the chair in case there was a damp patch, so often I’d be the last to leave a restaurant’.

The incontinence also dictated her wardrobe (dark clothes are less likely to show a leak) and where she shopped (department stores have loos).

A year ago Jackie had had enough. ‘I found my AI was taking over

my life - I thought about it the whole time. I’ve always been very optimistic, but sometimes I

wondered “Why me?”’Jackie went to the doctor, feeling

able to talk about it now she was in her mid-fifties, and was told she had an oversensitive bladder.

‘The doctor had a few suggestions but nothing really worked for me.’

It was back to ‘getting on with it’, but then Jackie, who says her partner of 15 years is ‘really understanding’ about her AI, discovered new slim, but highly absorbent, AI speciality products.

‘I’m happier buying Always Discreet for sensitive bladder, as they look quite like sanitary towels in my basket, and they’re really reliable, so I can get on with my life instead of worrying all the time,’ she says.

‘I also finally feel able to talk about it freely, and I’ve discovered that so many of my friends have the same problem. We don’t want it to rule our lives, and if we know we’ve got the right protection, we can forget about it - even in an exercise class.’

■ Adult incontinence (AI) affects more than 3.5million British women

■ One in three women over the age of 18 is affected

■ There are three main types: urge incontinence, when you have a strong need to pee but can’t reach the toilet in time, stress incontinence, when you experience leaks when coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercising and mixed incontinence, which is a mixture of both

■ Pregnancy and childbirth are common causes because they affect your pelvic floor muscles and ligaments

■ Menopause is another cause: reduced oestrogen levels can mean muscles become weaker

■ Always Discreet for sensitive bladder provides women with a full range of products that meet their different needs, including a line up of ultra thin liners and pads that absorb 2x more than women may need*, and underwear that provides up to 100% discretion and protection

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For tips on managing AI, or if you are inspired by Jackie to share your story and help give a voice to the one in three women who experience bladder sensitivity, go to dailymail.co.uk/alwaysdiscreet