A Beckenham man who runs up to 75 miles a week has made a remarkable recovery after spending three months being unable to walk.
Nick Little, 27, originally from Beckenham but now teaching in Dubai, suffered the serious injury to his shin bone during a race in Leeds.
It was four years ago when he broke his tibia and he was wrongly diagnosed straight away – being advised to "rest".
Despite constant pain it wasn’t until April 2017 when he realised that he could no longer walk properly.
He was referred to Professor Nick Harris – consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Spire Leeds Hospital.
An MRI and CT scan confirmed the fracture and Nick told the professor being pain free wouldn’t be satisfactory – he wanted to be able to run long distances again.
Despite wanting to avoid surgery, his fracture did not heal completely with non-operative treatment.
He went back to running but the recurring pain led him back to Professor Harris in April of last year.
Nick underwent a tibial nailing procedure where a motel rod was inserted inside the bone the following month.
"I was amazed at how quickly my recovery happened," Nick said. "I was a little stiff at first however I was able to move around well enough and it only took a further couple of weeks to get back to fairly normal mobility.
"A prescribed rehab regime started soon after to build back the muscle that had been lost due to resting."
His fracture has now healed following rehab and Nick moved to Dubai to take a teaching post in August.
He has slowly built his fitness and made a sensational return in the Bratislava Marathon in April – his first race in three years.
Nick recorded his fastest ever time and finished 7th out of 6,000 runners.
He said: "I feel so grateful to be in a position to be running injury-free for the first time since the summer of 2015. I honestly cannot praise Professor Harris and the staff at Spire highly enough.
"From the start he understood my issues and what I wanted to achieve. He made sure that when I left for Dubai he provided me with details of what I needed to do even when not under his care anymore.
"I was fortunate to have access to the anti-gravity treadmill during my rehab and I really believe it helped to speed up my recovery and got me back on route to being able to run at a very competitive level."
Nick is planning to run more races in the UK in the next few months.
His next goal will be to beat his personal best at the Valencia Marathon in December this year.
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