For many, 2020 will go down as a very memorable year. A year of the good, the bad, the fires and the COVID. To start off the year, we had fires burning all around us. The “Black Summer” completely devastated many communities around Australia, with our local community and surrounds certainly in the thick of it. So many family members, close friends and acquaintances lost so much. It is hard to fathom the enormity of it.
Feeling like such a small part, we felt completely helpless. That was until the call came out for therapists to volunteer their time treating the RFS and CFA men and women at their temporary headquarters in Holbrook and Tallangatta. We jumped at the chance, as did many other amazing therapists from the Albury Wodonga community, as well as those from as far away as Geelong and Melbourne. This was only a very small way we could give back. The hours of hard work they put in, to save us and our community, was astonishing. We are truly blessed to have such an amazing array of fireys and their able assistants to protect us.
What have we achieved?
In February, we waved goodbye to our good friends at Back On Track Physiotherapy and headed off to our newly renovated clinic. Many different businesses helped us get our building fit for operating our clinic from and we thank them kindly for doing such an amazing job. What we have at 715 Young St is a clinic unlike any other in this region. We guarantee it.
In March we added to our superstar admin team. Justine and Kelly were excited to be joined by Kerry, making a dynamic threesome of ladies who have made up the amazing welcoming committee that greets you and makes you feel incredibly welcome every time you walk through our door or contact the clinic. They are seriously impressive at what they do.
All was moving along at a rapid pace until COVID hit. Many businesses closed, whether forced to or otherwise, as the seriousness of the situation was assessed. We made the decision to stay open, to be here for those in desperate need and to help ease the burden on our already struggling health system. Luckily for us, our hygiene standards have always been a priority, so some minor tweaking had us ready to serve our community in the only way we know how.
We continued to move forward, whilst remaining extremely vigilant of the ever evolving COVID pandemic. Our loyal clients continued to pour in and in May another gun Osteopath, Matthew Grantham joined our team. He has fitted in seamlessly, enjoying the light hearted banter and numerous laughs that come with working at Sports & Spinal Albury.
Early July saw Osteopath and Exercise Physiologist, Bailey Lang, become only the second Osteopath in Australia to be awarded Advanced Practitioner Recognition in Exercise Rehabilitation, in recognition of all of that extra time she has spent learning the art of exercise rehabilitation. A massive achievement. Well done.
We opened in Wodonga!
July came and our border closed. Never did we ever think that this could happen. But it did. Our vision, “to treat and educate people with the goal of making Albury Wodonga the happiest, healthiest place in Australia, if not the world, through amazing healthcare”, doesn’t really hold true if you are only servicing one side of the border. So we packed up our needles, cream, linen, etc and found a space in Wodonga. We were lucky enough to be helped out for a month by the amazing team at Enhance Physiotherapy Albury Wodonga. For this we will be forever grateful.
Then, due to overwhelming support from the Wodonga and surrounding Victoria community, the time had come that we needed more availability. Tim, Dan and his team at Complete Care Chiropractic welcomed us into their facility, a place where we still operate from today. We are excited to announce that Sports & Spinal Wodonga will continue to operate in 2021 as we try to navigate the new found difficulties of living life on the border.
New AxIT Technology
Somewhere, amongst the chaos, our AxIT room was finally completed. The AxIT system, which we have had for nearly two years, now has a home. For those that don’t know what the AxIT system is or does, it is state-of-the-art movement assessment technology that has previously only been available in elite sporting institutions. If you would like to know more, Cameron has written a blog here. We were the first clinic between Melbourne and Sydney to purchase this technology. It is a game changer.
Personal Achievements
And finally, some personal milestones were reached. Matt purchased his very first home, Cameron got engaged to his lovely fiancee Emily………and Justine managed to turn 30 (+10) years old.
Last but not least…
We have been amazed the overwhelming community support we have received throughout this year. To continually hear the profound effects our team have had on people’s lives is truly humbling. Words cannot express how much this means to us. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for all being awesome. We are so excited to hear that what we have created at Sports & Spinal Albury and now Wodonga is second to none.
