Pool helps golden guy Matt to recover
A PARALYMPIC gold medallist more used to international swimming pools has been benefitting from a smaller pool at Stepping Hill Hospital.
Matt Walker MBE has been receiving hydrotherapy sessions from a therapy team at the hospital’s pool in recent months following an arm injury last year.
Matt, from Marple, has been one of the country’s top Paralympic swimmers, having competed in four Paralympic Games starting at the 2000 games in Sydney and winning a total of 12 medals over the years.
He retired from competitive swimming in 2015 when his daughter Grace was born, but he has still been a regular in the pool since then as a coach to Masters, FE and junior swimmers.
Matt has cerebral palsy and is a champion of getting disabled people into swimming with the Matt Walker MBE Disability Swim Academy and Cerebral Palsy Sport.
He has coached swimmers who have swam internationally, nationally and regionally.
Unfortunately, while holidaying in Cornwall last summer, Matt fell and suffered a severe fracture in his arm.
He said: “It was very serious and I had to have an emergency operation at a hospital in Cornwall. At one point there was a chance of me losing use of the arm altogether, but thankfully they started me on the route to recovery.”
Since then he has been receiving physiotherapy at his local Stepping Hill Hospital, and since October has been benefitting from weekly sessions in its hydrotherapy pool.
Matt said: “The care I’ve been having from Andrew,
Xav and the team in the pool has been absolutely amazing.
“It’s a highlight of the week! I can do so much more in the water than I can outside it. It’s really helped me to start moving my arm again.”