Newsletter February 2010

The RFU Injured Players Foundation (IPF) was officially launched at a reception hosted by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, at 10 Downing Street on 18 February.  Ian Beer CBE, Chairman of the IPF and founder of SPIRE - forerunner of the new charity said "The Injured Players Foundation is launched today not only to help any player injured in the future but also to ensure that those injured before them receive the care and support they need.”  Gordon Brown commented that, "With a dedicated team at Twickenham working closely with spinal injury units and the NHS, the Injured Players Foundation is a fantastic initiative and one that I know will make an enormous difference to helping injured players to rebuild both their bodies and their lives.”   

Troye Collins and Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson, England Team Manager pledged the support of the entire England squad to the work with the RFU Injured Players Foundation - “A number of the squad will be visiting the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore tomorrow to meet patients, including injured players, to see the excellent medical care they receive and further visits will be made going forward.”
You can watch a video of the launch at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCCg_y6DuFU
Please note the RFU IPF can not be held responsible for the content of external sites.

Players at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore

The next day, patients and staff at Stanmore were delighted to greet Toby Flood and Harry Ellis, Nick Kennedy and Delon Armitage and Riki Flutey joined Martin Johnson for a tour of the facilities of the largest orthopaedic hospital in the UK and one which is regarded as a leader in the field of orthopaedics both in the UK and world-wide.

The Spinal Cord Injury centre opened in 1981 and is one of only 11 specialist centres in the UK designated to manage people with spinal cord injuries. The centre provides lifelong comprehensive management for people with spinal cord injury, including state of the art surgical techniques, full rehabilitation after an injury and the input continues after the initial hospitalisation. The aim is to assist people in maximising their activity and social participation after a cord injury. The centre also works to promote lifelong health and wellbeing of people with spinal cord injury.

England and London Irish second row Nick Kennedy said, "Meeting the patients was something I won't forget. Everyone was very positive about their physio and rehab work and all of the staff at the hospital, who do an incredible job.