Introducing Feet First
Feet First was founded in 2003 by Blackpool Victoria Hospital Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Steve Mannion.
We are funded solely by donations and fund raising events and 100% of funds raised directly benefit those in need of orthopaedic surgery and treatment.
We are currently focusing our resources on two countries – Malawi in Central Africa, and Laos in South East Asia.
Malawi is situated at the Southern end of the Great Rift Valley bordered by Tanzania in the north, Zambia in the west and Mozambique to the east and south. It is some 800km in length and at no point more than 160km wide.
A multidisciplinary team from Blackpool visited Malawi in 2004 for a month, to treat children with severe orthopaedic deformities, and to train the local staff in both the management of club foot and in basic surgical techniques. This was followed up by a visit in June 2005 aimed at the treatment of cerebral palsy.
Laos is a land-locked country in South East Asia in which congenital deformities are also more prevalent than in the Western world. There is also a significant problem with traumatic injuries due to the poor infrastructure and poor maintenance of vehicles (leading to numerous traffic accidents), and due to landmines left over from the Vietnam War.
The first visit was made in February 2006, and this was followed up by another visit in February 2007. Although both of these visits focused on club foot, we are intending further collaboration in Laos to educate the local medical staff about cerebral palsy and orthopaedic trauma.