A photography expedition to Egypt’s White Desert in 2009 left Mrs Meyer with more than her photos as memories.

Days of carrying heavy camera equipment across the White desert in Egypt left Mrs Meyer with pain in her hip. She also found herself struggling with the additional problem of her hip frequently giving out.  

After several return trips to her doctor, Mrs Meyer was finally diagnosed with having a hip fracture. Carrying too much weight while trekking in the desert was believed to have caused the injury.

Once the diagnosis was made, Mrs Meyer underwent an operation to repair the fracture. Unfortunately, it turned out the fracture was only part of the problem and Mrs Meyer faced three more years of operations addressing impingement issues and labral tears in both her hips.

Mrs Meyer’s last operation was in February 2014 and the prognosis was promising. After four years of using a cane and crutches, Mrs Meyer needed to relearn how to walk. She also faced dealing with the affect of years of atrophy caused by her limited mobility.

Mrs Meyer was referred to The Physiotherapy Centre for hydrotherapy by her NHS physio. She said: “I had tried hydrotherapy before and did not find it helpful so I went along to The Physiotherapy Centre not really knowing if the treatment would work. I soon realised that the approach at The Physiotherapy Centre was completely different and I immediately started to make progress.

“The major difference between this and other treatment was that Karen and Manuela took the time to get a clear picture of my needs.  They were able to put me on a course of treatment that started gradually and was at a level where I could make progress.

“I saw Manuela weekly and would describe her as having a genius gift for healing. She knows the mechanics of the body and constantly supervised what I was doing, which meant she could make suggestions to prevent me from causing myself harm.

“'The nature of my injury and years of being on crutches meant I suffered from lots of referred pain in my legs and back. Since starting the hydrotherapy I feel ten times better. The staff at The Physiotherapy Centre take a whole body approach so if I said to Manuela that ‘my back hurts this week’, she suggested a suitable exercise.

“It was with a real sense of achievement that I progressed to land based exercise which originally I was too weak to do. I am delighted with the progress I have made.

“Recently, I have relocated to another country but I anticipate that my progress will continue as I have been given a set of self-directed exercises and have been advised how to make the next steps of improvement.

“Compared to other treatments, my experience at The Physiotherapy Centre has been like night and day. I have made steady progression and after a relatively short time, I relearned how to walk and how to climb stairs. The team made a substantial difference to my life.”