Life Stories

Siobhan is Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) Project Director at the College of Medicine and Health. Siobhan's father was born in Ireland in the 1904 and so was exposed to the post potato famine Ireland as well as the war. Siobhan would often see her father in thought, but when she asked what he was thinking about, he would never fully answer. Siobhan went on to become a nurse and it was during thi...

Ronnie is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon working at Manchester Foundation Trust, specialising in shoulder & elbow surgery. He trained at Cambridge University medical school and, after spending a few years around the area as a junior doctor, moved back to Manchester where he completed his specialist training in trauma & orthopaedic surgery. Ronnie told me that he knew he wanted to be a do...

Rishi is the current club Doctor at Leeds United FC and one of the youngest working in professional sport. He talks about the first real opportunity he got in sport working with British Gymnastics and how working in a variety of higher trauma sports gave him a very good grounding and understanding of Sports Medicine. Combining working as a GP, as well as elite sports, gives exposure to a much wide...

Andy is is the Lead Endurance Physiotherapist for British Athletics, working across London, Loughborough and Brighton. Andy has had a passion for athletics for years, covering numerous major competition events; holding camp and training camps both nationally and internationally. He has been either indirectly or directly involved across two Olympic cycles, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. Our chat got off...

Andy is an experienced sports physiotherapist having worked at several top football teams. He explained how he ended up doing sports science as his first degree when physiotherapy was the thing he really wanted to do. Whilst qualifying as a physio, Andy volunteered at several clubs which ultimately led to him being offered a position at Bolton Wanderers. This was at the time when the club was bein...

Tom Wainwright is a physiotherapist, clinical academic and quality improvement specialist. He is Associate Professor in Orthopaedics and Deputy Head of the Orthopaedic Research Institute at Bournemouth University. Tom explained why he chose physio and how he came to move in to Orthopaedics and then research. He has a broad range of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal related research interests, and is...

Andy is a physiotherapist turned entrepreneur. He told me how he always wanted to be a physiotherapist and even though he didn't get the grades he wanted, was able to enrol on the sports rehabilitation course at Salford University. Andy explains how he and Adam started planning setting up a clinic in their first year and they fulfilled this creating Summit Physiotherapy in 2006. When I had just st...

Louise is an Occupational Therapist with over 29 years of clinical experience in both public and private settings specialising in breast cancer rehabilitation and Lymphoedema management. As Director at Australian Lymphoedema Education, Research and Treatment (ALERT) program Louise is involved in strategically managing and developing the education, research and treatment arms of the innovative mult...

Dr Subhasis Basu is a Consultant Musculoskeletal Radiologist with his private practice locations based in Cheshire, Manchester, Lancashire and London, and his NHS base at Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. He completed general Clinical Radiology and higher subspecialty training in Musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging at the then North West Deanery School of Radiology in Manchester. Thi...

As a fascia stretch & structural balance coach, over the last 11 years, Barbara has helped NFL, PGA, LPGA, NHL, MLB, and UFC athletes to perform and recover effectively. This experience has taught her that performing your best requires the integrated, sustained, and heightened function of every system in your body. And physical talent alone can vanish quite quickly when and if you ignore your...

Jon is one of the foremost names in acupuncture and is chairman of the board of directors for the Acupuncture Association for Chartered Physiotherapists (AACP). Jon explains how he had a very unusual route in to physio starting out as a musician. Upon becoming a physio, he has worked in the NHS, professional football (Port Vale FC) and in academia. Interestingly Jon became disillusioned with Acupu...

Chris is one of the best known and respected names in MSK Diagnostic Ultrasound in the UK. He explains that he wanted to be a physio from being a child and how happy he is that he made this decision. Chris told me the question he answered 'wrong' at his interview at Nottingham University meaning he wasn't offered a place. He explained that although he always wanted to be a football physio, he thin...

Helen told me what it was like growing up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and then moving to Bristol (UK) to study Physiotherapy. This was in the Apartheid era and Helen explains her thoughts on this and how it impacted her. After raising three children back in Zimbabwe, Helen became a full time physio building a busy private clinic as well as working at provincial and national level with many differen...

This podcast is with one of my closest friends who is also Director of Outpatient Rehab Therapy Services at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ken talks about how a brush with the law as a teenager was a pivotal point in his life that ultimately led to a career in physical therapy. His exposure to technology during this period and at his first job roles gave him a fascination for incorporating medical device...

When Professor Burke became a hand consultant he was only one of two in the UK. He tells me the impact his father had on him choosing medicine and how and why he chose to specialise in hands. Hand specialism was more advanced in the USA back then and Frank explains how beneficial it was doing fellowships under world renowned surgeons in Iowa and Louisville. Frank is a Professor of Hand Surgery AND...

Sports science has developed massively over the last 30 years. Phil tells me about what it was like starting out in this area and how he ended up specialising in Biomechanics. He tells me what it was like working with some of Britain's top athletes, such as Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis and Ashia Hansen, even though he was still a relative novice. Phil talks about how important it is to conduct r...

Dave is one of the most experienced Physiotherapists in football having spent over 35 years with teams such as Port Vale, Sunderland and Stoke City. He tells me about how working in this area was the only thing he wanted to do after deciding he wanted to be a Physio. We also discuss the huge change in the role being part time all the way through to having an extensive medical team set up. Hearing...

Ian is Head of Performance Services & Lead Physio at GB Boxing. He explains his decision making on choosing physiotherapy when growing up in his home country. We also discuss his first experience of the Olympics in Athens, supporting local national federations. Ian has been with English Institute of Sport (EIS) for over 14 years, working predominately with GB Boxing. He tells me about the ‘ele...

Denise was one of the first people that I came across when we started working in Lymphoedema. This is a world that I knew little about but is one that has become integral to our business, and helped me understand it when a family member was suffering with the condition. Denise is still a great support to us in this area, and our work is now helping our musculo-skeletal clients to understand the im...

Andrew is the Lead academy doctor at Millwall FC. As well as this, he is now Senior Editor & podcaster for the Football Medicine & Performance Association and Assistant Secretary at the FA Medical Society. We are moving in to a new world of how we share and consume information and it was really interesting to hear Andrew's perspective on the impact social media is playing on this. Is an in...

Lorenzo is a leader in the world of tendinopathy, diagnostic ultrasound and ultrasound guided interventions. We discuss him starting university at 16 which ultimately led to working in the sporting and sports medicine 'capital of the world', Melbourne. His time here included working with some of the biggest names in Sports and Exercise Medicine as well as for Melbourne Storm Rugby League. Lorenzo...

Clint spent over 20 years as a professional footballer representing teams such as Tranmere Rovers, Stoke City, and Crystal Palace. Clint and I were in the same High School team and I remember very clearly how much he stood out back then, as a man in a boys team at 16. He talks about how he got his chance at Tranmere and how a leg break set his career back for several years. He was part of the QPR...

Duncan studied at Edinburgh University, before joining the Army in 1983, where he served as a doctor until 1992, which included tours in The Falklands and Afghanistan.  He tells me how rejoining the military helped him get in to sports medicine and how he had to go to the top of the command chain to be allowed to leave early, much to the annoyance of his immediate superiors. During his four y...

With the current political state in the USA, now could not be a more relevant time time to have spoken with Drew Contreras! Drew served as Director of the White House Wellness Centre and physical therapist to President Barack Obama. We discuss how he got this role and his first meeting with the 44th POTUS. Drew also tells how he started in physiotherapy and why he chose to serve in the military. &...

I first met Tom when he used our technology during his rehabilitation for his Achilles injury. As with most athletes, injuries play a huge part in a career and Tom gives his insight in to how he managed this. We discuss how he first started in running and his athletic scholarship at Florida State University, leading to Tom representing Great Britain at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing over 1500m....