Brett’s father’s business was purchased by Hanger Clinic in the late 90s, and they’ve stayed with Hanger since then. It was through Brett’s work at Hanger, and through his passion for making a difference, that the idea about a running clinic came to him.

“I’ve been wanting to make running blades more accessible to regular people, so putting on a test-run event has been a dream of mine for a long time. I reached out to Lasse from Levitate and he sent us Levitate running blade samples within a week – and off we were.”

BARWIS gym joined the mission which enabled Hanger and Brett to put “something magical” together within a short period of time. The event was an eye-opener to Brett and the rest of the crew, and it helped shed a new light on the meaning of ‘sport’ – and which types of amputees sports prosthetics are built for.

“We all have an unconscious bias when it comes to our patients. We have an idea of what they can and can’t do, so it was just incredible seeing some people, you wouldn’t necessarily associate running blades with, come through and defy our expectations.”

Many of these predispositions, Brett suggests, are direct results of years of media influence. Running blades are often portrayed through media as something that’s reserved for Olympians and other high activity athletes that run, jump and do things that regular people don’t necessarily associate themselves with.

“These images just trickle down into what we see as prosthetists, so part of the change can come from viewing sports and athletes from a different perspective. Maybe even seeing regular people that just want to be active again in ways that are not necessarily high performing. Just being able to play with your kids, playing ping-pong, and going out dancing with your significant other. There are opportunities beyond the initial intent of the running blade.”

During the test-run/running clinic, we saw how amputees in 20+ years got the chance to try a running blade for the very first time. Brett and Hanger even had a 3-time paralympian come by, who has had access to many things during his career – but never a running blade.

“So many people’s eyes were opened to the possibility of owning a running blade during the day.”