Leanne welcomes Commonwealth Games golden opportunity | News

Behind every successful sporting event, such as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, there is always a diverse and committed army of volunteers and the volunteer medics are of critical importance for competing athletes.

Dr Leanne Singh, a Royal Surrey Consultant Radiologist, was one such volunteer who gave up her own time over two weeks to work as a Radiologist at the Athlete's Villages.

Following a post on the BSSR's Members website last year, Leanne registered her interest via the official Commonwealth site and was selected to join the musculoskeletal radiology group, helping to treat elite athletes with their injuries.

She said: “It has been a real privilege to be able to give back to the Commonwealth community,  particularly during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year, and it’s also, selfishly, very good additional experience for me.

“It is a truly multidisciplinary team in the clinic, with radiologists, radiographers, sonographers, chiropractors, physiotherapists, sports medicine doctors and massage therapists all working together. It means you get instant feedback and therapy for the athletes, so it’s very gratifying.

Despite the long commute between Guildford and Birmingham and fitting her volunteer shifts around her Royal Surrey clinic commitments, Leanne has enjoyed the additional exposure to elite level sports injuries.

She said: “The camaraderie has been great. I’ve been working with people who are very well respected in my specialty and people who I wouldn’t otherwise get to work with, so it’s a tremendous privilege on lots of levels. It’s been a fantastic experience.”

Inevitably, clinicians who are treating athletes competing in elite sporting events will also have to deliver bad news as well as good. Reflecting on this bittersweet element of the role, Leanne said: “Although it’s lovely to see an athlete you’ve helped, go on to be positioned in their medal event, it can also be quite heart-wrenching to have to break the news that an injury may take the athlete out of their event completely.

“There’s an awful lot of pressure on these young people, who are striving to make their dream come true and the fallout is huge if they’re injured in the run-up to an event or in the event. For some athletes, we might have to break the terrible news that they have career devastating injuries. The passion that these young athletes have for their sport is palpable, so watching dreams dashed as well as met is quite a rollercoaster experience.”