Leg Club Industry Partners

I think one of the strong features about the Foundation is its relationship with industry partners and that partnership has played out to be really important not just about wound care products but about the relationships people have about keeping the clubs going, about the effective way that treatment can be delivered, the challenge that there is between the Foundation and the partners to make sure that actually we're all in this for the same reason and it's not just about one particular product, it is really important as well. I've noticed that so many of the people that I deal with from the industry and in that partnership relationship have that in their hearts as well. It's not just about the profit and the product and all the rest of it, but that collaboration, that working together for people with really debilitating conditions is crucial to that relationship and that partnership. I've been involved with the Leg Club probably since the very start of it. I had a chance meeting with Ellie Lindsay and her magnetic personality and her cause around the Leg Club really drove me to actually get involved personally. At the time I was actually working with a company called Johnson & Johnson, but then we formed a friendship and a relationship both as friends but also as partners in business and it's really blossomed into where we see the Leg Club today. For me, wound care is such an emotive subject and it's so personal to people when they have challenges around wounds. It can be such a big isolation for patients, so discomforting and but also stressful for them to have those wounds treated properly. I think the numbers don't lie, there's over 200,000 people in the UK that have active wounds and those are the people that we know of. There's plenty of also patients out there who actually are just caring for themselves at home and it's that part of that social isolation and that feel of despondency that we want to overcome and overcome together in a partnership. I'm proud to say that we're part of the Leg Club Foundation and part of the unit that really goes forward to reaching out to patients, to giving them an opportunity to heal and heal better and not just on their own but know that there are people out there like themselves that equally have problems but together we're trying to get through that. The other great thing about it is the science of healing is still evolving and today we're seeing such great products that are coming onto the market that are really changing the way that the nurses and clinicians can interact with patients and can actually move them forward in a great way. So problems that people have such as diabetes, peripheral vascular diseases, those things are there but they are being overcome by the technology and the products that are there to help support those patients through those times and I think it's critical really that patients get access to great products but also have that training and knowledge and skill given to them by clinicians but also that they can understand how it's going to affect their wounds and how they can go on to heal. So as I said we're really delighted to be part of this community of care that can reach out to patients in their own environment and help them through that process. My first involvement with the Leg Club was nearly seven years ago when I started myself as a sales rep. I was at a study day, setting up my stand, ready to talk about exudate management and the dressings that we have. And sure enough, Ellie Lindsay comes over in a usual charismatic way, manages to get me to set up a stand for her and bring the boxes, and at that point I engaged with Ellie and tried to understand what she did as I was new to the industry. And from that moment onwards, as a business, we were already initially signed up to be a partner of the leg club, but from that point going forward and over the last seven years, it's been on my agenda, if it were, to try and really get to the guts of what it's all about and how industry can support it properly and not just be a label as a leg club industry partner, but actually be proactive and driving not just the model forward, but the understanding and the education across the UK and beyond, as we see now. We've been able to, as a company, support the nurses and volunteers who work in the leg clubs on a national basis in being able to provide them with suitable treatment regimes and education and support to ensure that their patients and the members of the leg clubs are getting suitable outcomes. I've seen first hand the benefits for the leg club members visiting the various leg clubs. What's nice is, as certainly an outsider going into these leg clubs, over the years I see the same patients in there, some of whom are no longer going back to have their legs treated but are going back for the social environment and being able to have contact with people who throughout the week they may not have regular access to.