10k success for hip replacement patient Rosalind (From Ilkley Gazette)

10k success for hip replacement patient Rosalind

10:00am Friday 21st September 2012 in News By Jonathan Redhead, Ilkley/Otley Reporter

An Ilkley woman is celebrating after completing a 10k event less than 18 months after having both hips replaced.
Rosalind Beeson achieved her personal challenge, which was to walk the Great Yorkshire Run through Sheffield city centre. She  recorded a time of one hour 51 minutes and has raised about £850 for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Mrs Beeson had her first hip replaced at Airedale Hospital, Steeton, in July 2010 and the second in April 2011.
As part of her rehabilitation, she started doing long walks last March, building up to six miles last May.
“I found that the more walking I did, the better I became. My posture has got better and my backache, which came from compensating for damaged hips, has disappeared,” said the 56-year-old.
“I practised walking faster and although my time was pretty slow compared to most people, it was fast for me. I did find the Great Yorkshire Run quite hard as my muscles have not yet regained the strength they had before the operation, but I was really pleased with my result.”
Before her operations, Mrs Beeson had completed nine other runs, including the Great North Run in Newcastle five times.
She works in the Department of Health and at the time of the operations was working on the Health and Social Care Bill, involving many trips along the corridors and up staircases in the Houses of Parliament.
“I was in agony and walked very slowly before the operations, but after my second one I’m rushing around carrying bags of papers,” said Mrs Beeson.
Her second operation was carried out as part of the Enhanced Recovery Programme under a combination of a spinal and local anaesthetic. This meant she was alert and pain free immediately afterwards and was able to start walking on the hip a few hours after the operation.
Before it took place, she went to the Joint Replacement Education Group, where it was explained to her what would happen and halved the length of her stay in hospital.
A sponsorship page for Mrs Beeson’s is at justgiving.com/Rosalind-Beeson.