From the Oxford Brookes University News Archive
18/09/2012
Belinda Twissell, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, and Desi Gillespie, 2012 Oxford Brookes physiotherapy graduate, were selected to be London 2012 Games Maker volunteers with roles within the Paralympic Medical Team. Both were based at the Polyclinic in the Athletes Village. Belinda worked as a physiotherapist and Desi as a sports massage practitioner.
The Polyclinic provided services to athletes and the Paralympic family and officials. It provided a unique opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary environment with the latest medical equipment. Provision included, amongst others, nurses, radiographers, dentists, podiatrists and pharmacists. The therapy services enabled physiotherapists to work alongside sports massage practitioners, osteopaths and chiropractors to provide combined injury management assessment and treatment. Treatment was available from 6:30am until 11pm which meant some very early starts and late nights for all the Games Makers.Athletes were able to see sports doctors, have onsite MRI scans and then arrive in the physiotherapy department with the results of these scans. Athletes from the smaller countries, who did not have their own team physiotherapy provision, made regular use of the clinic. We also provided a service to the various training venues which gave the unique opportunity to see various teams training for their events such as seated volley ball.The highlight of Belinda’s 10 days, was being allocated to be a first responder for an hour in the Olympic stadium during an athletics event. During this hour, an athlete who had made daily use of our services and was a particular fan of the ice-baths, won a gold medal in his track event. He returned the next day to show the therapy team his medal and get on with preparations for his following events.
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