Charity helps with TV documentary

BBC programme makers called on local charity STEPS for help with making one of the documentaries in the new series ‘SuperDoctors’ to be aired on BBC 1 on Thursday September 4 at 9pm.
In the final episode of a series of three, which focuses on doctors and surgeons who do extraordinary and pioneering work, Blackpool-based surgeon Steve Mannion is featured.
Steve spends half of his working life overseas treating orthopaedic conditions such as clubfoot, where the feet are turned inward and upwards from birth.
Lymm-based STEPS were able to advise on the numbers of babies born with this condition in the UK and put the researchers in touch with parents of children with the condition and doctors who treat it in the UK.
Over recent years a low-tech method developed in the US by a Dr Ponseti has become more widely known and used throughout the world, and it is this ‘Ponseti method’ which Steve Mannion is shown using in Malawi – one of the poorest countries in the world.
The method avoids the use of extensive surgery, using instead gentle manipulation and plaster casting followed by the wearing of special boots attached to a bar. The method is increasingly popular in the UK and STEPS are one of the main charities which can give parents information and support if their baby needs this treatment.
STEPS collects used boots and recycles them for use in projects overseas, and has recently sent 1,000 pairs to Papua New Guinea, where Steve Mannion has recently been working.
STEPS which runs a nation-wide helpline service from its Lymm HQ and provides vital information on all conditions affecting the hips and legs and feet through its website www.steps-charity.org.uk STEPS gets no government funding and is entirely reliant on donations.