Your bra hooks aren't beating you because of your arthritis. They were put in the one place stiff hands can't reach.

Margaret is 64 and lives near Leeds. Her arthritis has settled in both hands, mostly the knuckles and the base of her thumbs.

Getting dressed should take a minute. Instead it's the hook-and-eye that decides how the day starts. She fumbles, misses, drops the band, tries again. Some days she gives up and calls her daughter in from the landing.

It isn't the pain that stings most. It's standing there half-dressed, asking for help with something she's done on her own since she was twelve.

If that's you, you already know the quiet bargain you've started making: wear the old bra that's easier, skip the nice blouse, stay in.

Fasten it at the front and twist it round? The band drags across your skin, catches, and you still need a firm pinch to close the hook.

Go up a size so the hooks are looser? Now the band rides up your back, the cups gape and the straps slide off your shoulders.

The front-fastening bra from M&S or Boots? The clasp moved, but it's still a small, stiff clasp you have to press and slot with fingertips that won't cooperate.

Every one of these fixes kept the same thing: a fastening that needs a precise pinch. That's the part your hands can't do on a bad day. You didn't fail. You were sold the same design in different places.

Here's what nobody tells you at the fitting counter. A hook-and-eye needs two things arthritic hands find hardest: a fine pinch grip and arms rotated behind the back. Put those together and even a mildly stiff hand loses.

So stop asking your fingers to do it. Take the fastening away entirely.

That means a bra with no hooks and no clasps at all. It pulls on over your head like a vest. The stretch does the work your fingers used to do. You lift your arms, it slides down, it settles. No pinching, no reaching behind.

Wide cushioned straps take the weight off your shoulders. Full sides gather what used to spill out. One wide, smooth back panel lies flat instead of cutting a line.

The ShapeChic Original Bra was built on exactly that idea. Hold it with both hands, open palms, no gripping. Lift it over your head, ease your arms through the straps, pull it down.

That's it. Done, on your own.

The wire-free cups lift without anything digging under the bust. The lace cups look pretty, not medical. The wide cushioned straps spread the weight so they stop carving grooves into your shoulders. The full sides scoop the spill back into the cup, and the wide back panel smooths the rolls flat.

Sizes run S to 4XL, in seven colours, so this isn't a beige compromise. It's the bra you'd choose anyway, minus the bit you've been dreading.

Fair question. Most of us were taught the hooks are what hold everything up. They're not. The band's grip and the cup shape do.

The ShapeChic band is one continuous piece of stretch, so it hugs evenly all the way round instead of pulling tight at three hooks and loose everywhere else. That's why it doesn't ride up your back.

Compare the marks: an old hooked bra leaves red dents on your shoulders, a groove under the bust and a line across your back. This one leaves none of that.

Under a fitted top, the smooth back means no bulges either side. Women regularly say they look two dress sizes smaller in the same blouse, simply because nothing is being squeezed out.

This is the bit that matters. Margaret dresses herself again. No calling down the landing. No waiting for her daughter to come round.

She puts on the blouse she'd stopped wearing because the back rolls showed. She stands taller, because the straps aren't dragging her shoulders forward. She does the school run for her granddaughter without that nagging dig under the bust.

It's a small thing, doing up your own bra. Until you can't. Then it's your independence.

She says it best: she feels like herself again, not like a patient.

Every time you accept the old explanation, that it's your hands and that's that, you give away another little piece of doing things for yourself.

You don't have to. The hooks were always the problem, and now they're gone.

Right now ShapeChic is running Buy 1, Get 2 FREE, so you get three bras for the price of one: one on, one in the wash, one spare in a second colour. Delivery is free, and you have 30 days from delivery to send them back if you're not happy.

The offer won't stay up. Claim it while your size is still in stock.