Joint Action News - December 2013

www.jointaction.org.uk • Text JAXM77 £10 to 70070 Joint Action News – December 2013

Super Fundraisers!

On Sunday 27th October, 35 year old Eithne Venney took on the Great South Run in Portsmouth, braving the rather windy weather.

Two years ago Eithne underwent surgery to have a total hip replacement.

Eithne said: “It was a complete success and my recovery was pretty smooth. To celebrate the fact that I now have legs of equal length and hips that would make Shakira blush, I took part in the run to raise money for Joint Action. I wasn’t looking to break any records; just to get around the course was an achievement.”

It took Eithne 1 hour 46 minutes (and 1 second) to complete the race – a marvellous achievement.

Eithne has raised over £1,600 for Joint Action.

Thanks Eithne!

Big thanks to Susan Duncan who raised over £250 for Joint Action by taking part in the Cycletta Scotland – a 23km cycle race.

Cycling enthusiast, Susan says: “I decided to do the event after being 10 years off a bike, two kids and a hip replacement later I heard about it on the radio and my husband cheerfully announced ‘There’s something you could do’! So, not being someone who would not do a challenge, I decided to register. There were only six weeks until the event but I managed to get up to training about three times a week on roads at around 20km. The weather was the biggest challenge on the day as I had been round the course once so had a bit of an idea about what was to come.

There were nearly 700 riders on the day and having had no rain for months it soon soaked everyone.

I am aiming to do the race again in 2014 and move up to the 45km (I say that now)! Without my new hip I wouldn’t even be on a bike”.

Thanks Susan!

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Eithne, right, with her sister post-race

Susan with her children before the race

easyfundraising.org.uk is a great way to raise money for Joint Action and it’s really easy too – as you’d expect from the name. All you have to do is shop online and you don’t pay anything extra.

There are more than 2,700 retailers who support the initiative.

Just to prove how easy it is, here is an example:

If you wanted to purchase a book from Amazon, instead of going directly to the Amazon website, you go to easyfundraising.org.uk or use the easyfundraising toolbar.

You click from the easyfundraising website through to Amazon to make your purchase – the price of the book is the same as if you’d gone through to the Amazon site directly.

After you have bought your book, Amazon will make a donation to Joint Action as a thank you for your shopping with them. easyfundraising collect these donations for us and it costs us nothing!

So, whether you’re doing your weekly supermarket shop or you’re buying gifts online, think easyfundraising.org.uk.

Can’t remember your login details for your Joint Action account but would feel safer giving a donation online instead of posting one? You can now give to our appeal through JustGiving to www.justgiving.com/JAXmasAppeal2013 or you can even text JAXM77 £10 to 70070 (if you want to donate more than £10 via text, the £10 text can be done a maximum of 3 times).


Fundraising is EASYwith easyfundraising


In The SpotlightProf Terry Tsiridis – The University of Leeds

Research: Improving the fixation of femoral fracture in patients with an existing hip replacement, through collaboration with mechanical engineers.

Summary: Fracture of the femur following a total hip replacement is complex to treat due to the existing implant within the bone. There are several internal fixation options all of which require invasive surgery. If the fixation device later fails, revision surgery is necessary and quality of life can be seriously affected.

This is a cross-disciplinary project led by Trauma & Orthopaedic surgeon Prof Tsiridis and involving medical engineering researchers at the University of Leeds and University of Hull. Using laboratory techniques and computer models, researchers are studying the mechanical aspects of broken bones that occur around the implant of a total hip replacement (periprosthetic femoral fracture).

The aim of the work is to understand the mechanical scenarios of periprosthetic fractures, identifying combinations of bone quality, fracture type, fixation device and rehabilitation regime that place the patient at greater risk of implant failure.

To date the tests have shown the importance of partial weight bearing after fracture fixation, particularly where the fracture was very unstable and a trauma plate has been used to restore that stability. The work has received extensive recognition. Prof Tsiridis was invited to

give a keynote presentation as part of the 43rd Annual Course on Advances in Arthroplasty at Harvard Medical School in October 2013. This research is funded up until March 2014 and we hope to report further findings in a future issue.

Benefit to patients: Failure of an internal fixation device in the femur means that the patient must have another long surgery placing stress on the body of patients, who are likely to be elderly. The selection of a fixation method in these cases is a complex task and quite different for each patient. Enhanced understanding of the consequences the possible mechanical combinations will, over time, reduce the number of failures and reduce the number of patients who need to endure additional surgery.

The grant of £400,000 through Joint Action was

absolutely essential to establishing this excellent

collaboration and to communicating our findings to

the surgical community, and we are

grateful to the Latta Charitable

Will Trust for this support.

Prof Tsiridis was awarded £400,000 by Joint Action to complete this research, with funding from The Latta Charitable Will Trust.


NHS Gives You Your SayAt the time of writing, patient members are being sought for NHS England s t a k e h o l d e r

groups for Complex Spinal Surgery, Specialised Orthopaedic Services and Major Trauma.

Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs) are responsible for providing NHS England with clinical advice regarding specialised services, and for the delivery of key ‘products’, such as service specifications and commissioning policies, which enable the NHS Commissioning Board to commission services from specialist

service providers through the contracting arrangements overseen by its Area Teams.

This is an exciting time to join a CRG, as they take their place within the new commissioning structures which have been introduced as a result of NHS reform.

If you’re interested in joining a CRG, visit http://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/application/crg-patient-wave3 or call 0113 8250861 for more information. If you’re successful in joining a CRG, do drop us a line to let us know; it would be great to hear how you get on.

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Joint Action News - December 2013