A PHYSIOTHERAPIST from Airedale Hospital who has overseen the setting up of gym facilities as part of palliative care at Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice has been given a ‘Yorkshire women of achievement award’ for her outstanding contribution to the hospice.

The annual awards, organised by Sue Ryder Wheatfields Hospice, celebrate those Yorkshire women who work in the fields of business, education, sport, arts and health, as well as paying tribute to those who have shown immense courage.

Rachael Sharples, therapy team leader at Manorlands, Oxenhope, is part of a team of two physiotherapists and two occupational therapists which supports patients including from across Craven being cared for at the hospice.

Together, the team has introduced palliative rehabilitation to Manorlands, allowing people with life-limiting and terminal conditions to live as independently and as fully as possible.

It has involved the setting up of a physical and functional gym at Airedale Hospital which helps patients with their physical and occupational therapy. Demand has proved so high for the gym, that a second facility is due to open at Manorlands at the end of the month.

Team members have also trained volunteers to run activities so when people go to the hospice, they can be matched with a suitably trained volunteer.

The team can also provide pain relieving acupuncture and TENS service, and also have access to a van donated by Acorn Lifts, so volunteers can take people at the hospice on trips out.

The team also provide placements for occupational therapy and physiotherapy students from the University of Bradford and Leeds Beckett University and also for sport therapy students from Leeds Beckett University, to help train the therapists of the future.

Freya Sledding, therapy services manager at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said: “I am extremely proud that Rachael has been given this award for the innovation she and the therapy team have set up within the hospice.

“Her work demonstrates the value of therapy and the difference it can make to people managing their palliative condition. The set up of the gym has had brilliant outcomes for patients and uses student and volunteers. There is a strong partnership between the trust and Manorlands and we welcomed the use of the physio gym at Airedale Hospital to support this. Rachel demonstrates out of the box thinking to provide intervention which benefit patients.”

Rachael said she was accepting the award on behalf of the whole team. “I was amazed, pleased and very grateful that people at Sue Ryder Manorlands thought I was good enough to be nominated. But I feel I am accepting this on behalf of the team because they are fantastic,” she said.