Thank You for taking the time to read my page!
My name is Tamsin and I am running the Edinburgh Marathon on May the 28th in order to raise money for equipment for our new therapy gym at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary that will enable stroke patients to practice tasks and exercises either independently or with little help.
I have worked as a physiotherapist in the Stroke Team at the RLI since 2014 and love working with our patients and their carers to help rebuild their lives after what is often a sudden and devastating event in their lives. Giving them an environment where they can easily get on with their rehabilitation, taking control of it and managing to do enough repetitions to build new pathways in the brain is hugely important in terms of them being able to reach their potential for recovery and returning to their home as soon as possible.
I am raising money to buy a Sliding Top Tilt Table - a piece of equipment widely used in Australian Rehab centres by stroke patients to build early leg strength (but for some reason not used in the UK). Often the stroke can lead to near complete loss of muscle activity in the leg. The Sliding Top tilt table enables patients with extremely weak leg muscles to start exercising their legs. Once positioned on the table they can work away independently or with minimal help. A bit like a leg press in the gym. As they get stronger the table can be tilted up, making the exercise harder, to build their strength further. Not only will buying the Tilt Table help our own patients at the RLI, we are also hoping to do a Research Study with Lancaster University to prove how valuable this piece of equipment is in Stroke Rehab Units. By building this evidence the hope is that this valuable piece of equipment, known to work well in other countries, will become widely available in the UK so that other stroke patients will also be able to benefit.
I have never run a marathon before and am finding the training really hard! I had no idea how much physical and mental effort I was letting myself in for, but knowing that I can hopefully raise some money towards something that will benefit so many patients makes it more than worthwhile! I would be so grateful if you could donate to my page - no donation is too big or too small!! I will be grateful for anything and it will really help to keep me going on what I know will be a very tough but I'm sure really rewarding day on the 28th of May! If you're not able to donate I'd be really grateful if you could re-tweet or share my page - or send it to a kind business who may be able to provide a donation!

Tamsin Kind