Case Studies

Emily’s Momentum Story

After breaking her ankle in a horse riding accident over 10 years ago, the Momentum brace is allowing Emily Briggs to run again.

In 2005, Emily’s ankle was crushed when she and the horse she was riding fell. Emily’s ankle was so badly damaged that she required several operations, in addition to joint injections and physiotherapy. She was unable to walk or stand for long periods of time without pain and spent months recovering with the aid of crutches and a wheelchair. As a last attempt to reduce her pain, Emily was considering having her ankle fused or even having her lower leg amputated.

In 2015, Emily discovered Momentum whilst searching the internet and social media for alternative treatment options for her ankle injury. Emily visited the Blatchford Clinic in Sheffield and a bespoke Momentum brace was manufactured on site in December 2015.

Momentum is a custom carbon fibre Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) which partially offloads pressure from the foot and ankle following a complex lower limb injury. The carbon fibre construction is lightweight yet strong, making the brace ideal for both daily use and high impact activities.

Using Momentum, Emily now walks for up to 4 hours every day as a dog walker and reached her goal of running several 5k runs, including the Parallel London event at the Olympic Park in September 2016. With her first 10k run coming in July Emily training hard and is a regular visitor to her local Park Run.

Emily commented, “I love my brace so much, it’s amazing. I’m in the gym every day, I can run and I’m able to walk over much tougher terrain than I’ve managed to in a long time. I can’t tell you what that means, it’s changing my life. I’m shocked at how easy it is to do day-to-day stuff when you’re not in pain; it had been so long that the pain had become normal.”

You can follow Emily on Instagram or Facebook.