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Low Fell Physiotherapist Gets Graham Back on the Road

Tony Blair Sports Foundation member Graham Smith has now run more than 1,300 miles in his ‘2012 miles in 2012’ challenge to raise money for the Foundation, but his journey on his way to completing his challenge has not been entirely smooth.

Although he is about to take on the Bupa Great North Run on Sunday 16 September as part of his challenge, Graham is only just back on his feet thanks to physiotherapy support from Connect Physical Health after picking up a knee injury.

Having stayed on track with his challenge and reaching the magic half way point before the end of June, Graham was devastated to incur an agonizing knee injury in July which made running extremely painful and difficult. Concerned about the impact this would have on completing the 2012 miles in 2012 challenge, Graham broke the news about his injury to his many followers via his blog and twitter.

Fortunately for Graham his news was picked up by Connect, leading physiotherapy and sports injury specialists who were intrigued by his story:

“On 11th July we noticed that Graham had posted a blog regarding an injury – after reading his blog and discovering he was local and attempting to run 2012 miles in 2012, we were inspired by his story and offered to help him. It’s important that anyone with a muscular or joint problem receives an accurate diagnosis and gets good early professional advice and guidance as this can speed up recovery! Conscious that Graham has to complete his challenge in 2012 and being aware that he was raising money for The Tony Blair Sports Foundation, Connect offered Graham a free consultation so we could help get him back on track as soon as possible.”

After his initial consultation, it was recommended that Graham had further physiotherapy treatment and Connect offered to be his Physiotherapy Partner to provide the required treatment and advice for free while he completes his challenge. Graham is being treated by physiotherapist Dave Brown at Connect’s Low Fell clinic and has undergone physiotherapy and Kinesio taping to treat the wear and tear and soft tissue strain in his knee. Dave has also given Graham exercises to build strength in the supporting muscles around his knee. The treatment has been successful in helping Graham to manage his injury, and he is delighted with the results so far:

“I have now been seen several times by staff at Connect and my running is now nearly back on target to complete my 2012 miles in 2012 challenge. I can never thank everybody at Connect enough for the amount of help and support that they have given, and I am absolutely delighted that they are my Physiotherapy Partner for the 2012 miles in 2012 challenge.”

And Connect are equally pleased to be involved in helping Graham through his challenge, as Clinic Manager Joanne Lawlor says:

“While we can’t offer free treatments for every charity fundraiser, Graham’s story and attitude is fantastic. He’s a great bloke giving up his own time to help others – we are proud to be supporting him so he can achieve his goal as pain free as possible and hope his challenge inspires others to get involved with The Tony Blair Sports Foundation, which is a great cause.”

Graham is now back on the road and ready to complete the Great North Run to get some valuable miles under his belt towards his target of 2012 miles. Every £200 that he raises as part of his challenge will help The Tony Blair Sports Foundation to recruit and train another volunteer sports coach or official who will volunteer in the North East to help more young people take part in sport and lead active lives.

To sponsor Graham, you can visit his Just Giving site at www.justgiving.com/graham-smith19

You can also hear about all of his latest news by following him on twitter (@whickhamrunning) or by reading his blog at 2012milesin2012graham.wordpress.com