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Ben was on tour in Afghanistan several years ago when he sustained a serious ankle injury. After multiple surgeries and considerable pain, Ben is now up and running again with a new Momentum brace from Blatchford.

A partial detonation of an improvised explosive device, in October 2011, shattered Ben’s calcaneus. Over the next few years he underwent several operations, initially to pin his heel together and then to fuse his sub-talar joint. He also had several Cortisone injections to ease the pain. Despite this, Ben’s mobility was severely restricted and even using a walking stick he was unable to walk further than a mile without excruciating pain.

After being born with Club Foot, the Momentum brace is helping Gareth enjoy golfing pain-free for the first time in years.

Gareth was born with Congenital Talipes Equino Varus (Club Foot), a condition where babies are born with one or both of their feet pointing downwards and turned inwards. In Gareth’s case, both of his feet were affected and he has undergone several operations throughout his life, leaving him with limited mobility and pain after physical activity.

Gareth’s favourite hobby is golfing; he loves to play and has done regularly for decades. However, the repetitive twisting motion involved has caused further problems with his left foot, leaving him in severe pain after each round of golf and for several days afterwards. Gareth tried various orthotic devices and joined a flat golf course. He also underwent 3 more surgeries and even considered amputation. Unfortunately, nothing Gareth tried helped with his pain and, in 2014 Gareth gave up his golf membership.

Shortly afterwards, Gareth heard about the Momentum brace. He saw videos of people with similar conditions to him able to run again pain-free after being fitted with Momentum. Momentum is an innovative custom carbon fibre AFO. Designed to partially offload the foot and ankle to stabilise and relieve pressure and pain following complex lower limb injury. With carbon fibre struts that work much like prosthetic running blades, it stores and returns energy to enable participation in high impact activities such as running.

Gareth visited Blatchford Clinic and was fitted with his Momentum. Soon after, Gareth’s wife, Julie, commented, “Gareth can’t thank the staff and Blatchford enough for the change it’s made to his life already and only a few weeks in wearing his brace! We only returned yesterday from our travels up North, to walk the Open Golf Championship course (in Royal Birkdale). Waking up yesterday with no pain whatsoever is only something Gareth has dreamed of, since being born with club feet. We’ve also been to the golf range, to formally try his golf swing, wearing the Momentum, again with no pain after!”

Gareth is now able to walk, stand for long periods and play golf with little to no pain or swelling in his foot. He is able to play golf on consecutive days, something he couldn’t have considered before wearing the Momentum due to the pain and recovery time needed. He was even able to run on a treadmill for the first time in 20 years. Gareth commented, “I wasn’t expecting such a great result from the Momentum; my pain has almost completely gone.”

After breaking her ankle in a horse riding accident over 10 years ago, the Momentum brace is allowing Emily Briggs to run again.

In 2005, Emily’s ankle was crushed when she and the horse she was riding fell. Emily’s ankle was so badly damaged that she required several operations, in addition to joint injections and physiotherapy. She was unable to walk or stand for long periods of time without pain and spent months recovering with the aid of crutches and a wheelchair. As a last attempt to reduce her pain, Emily was considering having her ankle fused or even having her lower leg amputated.

In 2015, Emily discovered Momentum whilst searching the internet and social media for alternative treatment options for her ankle injury. Emily visited the Blatchford Clinic in Sheffield and a bespoke Momentum brace was manufactured on site in December 2015.

Momentum is a custom carbon fibre Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) which partially offloads pressure from the foot and ankle following a complex lower limb injury. The carbon fibre construction is lightweight yet strong, making the brace ideal for both daily use and high impact activities.

Using Momentum, Emily now walks for up to 4 hours every day as a dog walker and reached her goal of running several 5k runs, including the Parallel London event at the Olympic Park in September 2016. With her first 10k run coming in July Emily training hard and is a regular visitor to her local Park Run.

Emily commented, “I love my brace so much, it’s amazing. I’m in the gym every day, I can run and I’m able to walk over much tougher terrain than I’ve managed to in a long time. I can’t tell you what that means, it’s changing my life. I’m shocked at how easy it is to do day-to-day stuff when you’re not in pain; it had been so long that the pain had become normal.”

You can follow Emily on Instagram or Facebook.