Former athlete unveils clinic

A former Stafford athlete has returned to her home town to open a new sports injury and physiotherapy clinic.

Alison Glover and her husband Brett Nagata have taken over the former lingerie shop in Mill Bank and turned it into Achilles Heal.

And the couple have a prolific pedigree with both being physiotherapists to national sports teams and in fact met at the Sydney Paralympics.

They have ventured down from the west end of Glasgow, where they also ran a clinic, to launch their business in Stafford.

Alison, aged 38, has represented Staffordshire in athletics and hockey and said being closer to her family was one of the reasons for her return to the town.

She also believes there is a need for physiotherapists in the town and its central location will make their national and international travel easier.

Alison is a former pupil of Sir Graham Balfour High School and went on to train as a physiotherapist at Manchester University.

She has spent two years working in Australia and has just accepted a post with UK Athletics, working with British teams towards the Beijing games in 2008.

Brett works with the Canadian wheelchair basketball team, double Paralympic gold medallists and looking for their third in Beijing.

Before moving to Stafford they were both employed by the Scottish Institute of Sport, where Brett was lead physiotherapist for Scottish Judo and Alison was lead physiotherapist for Scottish badminton at events including World and Commonwealth championships.

More recently Alison was physiotherapist to Britain's silver medal-winning wheelchair curling team at the Turin winter Paralympics.

Between them the pair have 25-years experience in treating musculoskeletal injuries and Brett said Achilles Heal will aim to treat all musculoskeletal conditions: "Whether you injure yourself playing sport or pottering in the garden.

"We pride ourselves on taking time to assess the injury fully and explaining our findings to the client before progressing with treatment," he added.

The new clinic, which opens on Monday, will offer treatments ranging from manual therapy, massage and acupuncture to biochemical assessment for foot orthotics.