Meet team using cutting-edge tech for Paralympic athletes
TUCKED AWAY on the eastern side of the city, a hub of specialists in Leeds are applying cuttingedge technology to give patients the best possible quality of life after losing a limb.
The specialist rehabilitation services team, based at Leeds’ Seacroft Hospital, is made up of prosthetists and technicians.
They are employed by Steeper, a leading manufacturer of prosthetics, and the regional service provides new limbs for patients across Yorkshire.
And while they still use traditional methods like sewing machines, the team are ahead of the curve when it comes to technology.
Latest developments utilised at the hospital include the use of 3D printers and computer-aided design to create new and better personalised limbs for patients more quickly.
So successful are their methods, that the team is now manufacturing limbs that could be used by the next generation of British Paralympians.
One of those hopeful competitors is Stuart Meikle, 43, from Bingley. The painter and decorator is now working towards representing Team GB in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics as a triathlete, with the help of cutting-edge prosthetics made in Seacroft. As previously reported by
Mr Meikle’s right leg was amputated through the knee aged just six months.
Despite his disability, he had taken part in sports throughout his life, even in his early years when artificial legs had fairly basic designs.
But now, thanks to groundbreaking developments in the field, Mr Meikle has been fitted with a specialist knee, complete with a “tailored free-swing mode”, and a Steeper-made running blade to help him run and cycle.
“The blade took a bit of getting used to but I soon realised that it was a life-changer,” he said.
He is now training to take part in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo as a full-time funded Paralympic athlete. HEALTH BOSSES have stepped up cyber-security after NHS hospital trusts fell victim to malicious software attacks last year.
Operations and appointments at some hospitals in Yorkshire were cancelled after the health service was affected by an international cyber-attack in May 2017.
The National Cyber Security Centre stepped in after it emerged that computers and systems at 47 NHS organisations across the country had been targeted by malicious software, holding workers to ransom by freezing their computers,
Hospitals in York, Scarborough, Selby and East Yorkshire were among those affected. The Department of Health and Social Care has since announced that £150m will be spent on cyber-security over the next three years. Further safety measures include a new multi-million-pound Microsoft security package to ensure NHS organisations have the most upto-date software and security settings.