Stephen's Inspiring 52 Year Long Story:
Read below about how one of Paul’s longest standing clients has overcome a debilitating knee injury which resulted in a full knee replacement to Parkinson’s disease.
“52 years ago. In Cardiganshire, West Wales. The story starts.
It’s July 1973. We were on our family holiday. Just before my 15th birthday. I slipped on some grass. My left knee twisted under my body. Ouch. It got better.
Captain of the Senior Colts Rugby XV that year, my weakened left knee lasted only 5 minutes of the first practice game. Locked solid. Hospital. They needed General Anaesthetic to straighten the leg. I awoke with a fresh white plaster on my leg. I did not get a single game that season.
Come January 1974, they had decided to remove my entire meniscus cartilage. I awoke from the op to find it in a small specimen jar by my bed. It looked like a piece of cotton wool.
Some crude rehab exercises later, I could walk. Come the next rugby season, I am picked for the UCS 1st XV. Played all the games. Next year, my last at school, picked for the 1st XV again and played all the games. And football 2nd XI. And tennis 2nd VI. Off to Trinity College, Cambridge and played rugby 1st XV for all 3 years. And football 5th XI. And then Gray’s Inn rugby and football. And then cricket, wicket keeper, for years. And tennis.
Playing rugby, I had toured twice to the Lake District, twice to Paris and one tour to Hampshire
and one to Durham University. I had even turned out for Manhattan Rugby Club in the USA with
my school friend Simon Gavron. Playing football, I had toured to the Netherlands, Hampshire
and Jersey. I had rowed in a gents’ boat, the First and Third Trinity 5th boat, in the 1980
Cambridge May Bumps. And all was bone on bone.
By the year 2000, I could not walk on the knee. Downhill was the worst. It was worn down to bone on bone. I found Paul Goss, a Chartered Physiotherapist working in Battersea and saw him once a week. I also took up cycling with London Dynamo, covering 10,000 km per year. Paul looked after me and I could walk. Running, unfortunately, was now out of the question.
In 2012 I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Paul brilliantly was the first person to bring the Australian PD Warrior physio programme to the UK. It changed my life. Thank you Paul.
Finally on 4 March 2024, I had the full knee replacement at UCL on the NHS. I had nursed the knee for 51 years.
Full Knee replacement and 12 years of PD made for rehab complexity. UCLH sent me home 24
hours after the operation with just a booklet on the knee rehab exercises. Taking exercise was
critical for managing my Parkinson’s. But the new knee stopped me taking significant exercise.
Within 6 weeks we were in crisis. My PD rapidly got worse. I lost mobility. The key measure was
the distance I could walk each day. Each day it got ….. less. A downward spiral. I was now on
double the maximum dose of PD meds and was badly paralysed for most of the day.
Paul Goss and a college rugby club friend saved the day. Paul took care of my new knee joint rehabilitation and I was referred to the top US expert, Eric Johnson of Movement Revolution in Chicago for the PD. We co-invented a new knee rehab and PD exercise programme. We used Zoom for Eric in Chicago and Paul I saw face to face for physiotherapy and rehab work.
The results have stunned the experts.
- Knee: “best ever”
University College London Hospital said I was the “best knee recovery they had
ever seen”
● Parkinson: “best managed ever” and “rolling back the progression”
After 13 years I am still a Grade One. You cannot see I have Parkinson Disease.
Eric Johnson of Movement Revolution (number one PD movement specialists in
the USA) said this was the best he had ever seen. At my recent 6 month checkup
at Queen’s Square in London, my test performances showed I had rolled back
the disease by more than 5 years.
● Table tennis: “ready to take on the world”
Table tennis has been hugely beneficial for me. It is a powerfuI and effective
treatment for PD. I found Gavin Rumgay online in 2016. he has coached me
weekly for the last 9 years. A full time pro league player in UK and Germany,
Gavin has been Scottish champion for 18 years. He has entered me for the
Scottish Parkinson Open table tennis championships in August 2025. If that goes
well, we shall enter the worlds in 2026.
My real secret is the support and teamwork of Caroline. My wife. She has searched everyday for ways to slow, halt, roll back and cure my Parkinsons.
She never gives up.
Nor shall I.
Stephen Allott, Client at BLH
