Exercises help scoliosis sufferer

8:31pm Friday 7th March 2008

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A TEACHER from York who suffered 25 years of backache due to a spinal defect is now pain-free - thanks to a revolutionary new treatment.

Kim Crawford, of South Bank, now wants other people to know about the clinic that changed her life.

She was diagnosed with scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, when she was 13, and was told the only solution was to have rods inserted in her back before spending six months laid up on a hospital bed in a plaster cast.

But Kim decided against surgery and for the next 25 years lived with constant backache, spending nearly £30 every month on visits to the chiropractor.

Then last year, the 39-year-old heard about a radical new treatment at a Suffolk-based clinic called Scoliosis SOS.

Kim said: "It has been life-changing for me. Nobody has ever been able to help me before. I'd always been told that if I didn't have surgery, there was nothing that could be done."

Since it opened 20 months ago, Scoliosis SOS has brought relief to hundreds of Scoliosis sufferers using a physiotherapy-based set of exercises to "re-educate" the back muscles.

Kim, who works for the York Schools and Youth Trust, said: "It was a revelation. After going to the clinic, my lumbar spine and neck had both de-rotated and my backache had completely gone.

"Although my curve has not gone, it shows much less because my posture is much better and the muscles on the collapsed side of my spine have been strengthened.

"It has been worth every penny for me, especially as I no longer have to pay £27 every month going to see a chiropractor."

Kim said: "I would love young people to know about Scoliosis SOS because I think that if I'd been doing these exercises from when I was 13, my spine would have half the curve it has now."

For more information, log on to www.scoliosissos.com

Exercise programme

The programme of exercises is called the Katharina Schroth treatment.

It uses props such as small beanbags, pipes, poles and wall bars to correct the posture.

Users also receive a programme of exercises which are tailored to their own needs.