Having participated in the London Marathon in 2007, where she raised funds for the Spinal Cord Injury Association, Bev Collins, a dedicated charity worker, was sent an advert about working with wheelchair rugby. That’s where it started.
In 2008, when the team had just returned from the Beijing Paralympics, Bev Collins, Clinical Nurse Lead at Wellspect UK, joined the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby team as one of their carers. Her new passion led her to attend the London Paralympics in 2012 as nurse for the squad and took her further to Rio in 2016 with the British Paralympics Association.
Since then she has been preparing for the next games in Tokyo, sadly delayed due to the pandemic until August 2021. “Our Sports Science and Sports Medicine team work tightly together and practice different scenarios to be prepared for anything that may happen. In terms of the Corona virus, they are implementing the strategy they have been advised to via the British Paralympic Association and the World Health Organization,” Bev tells us.
In this interview she talks about her work as lead nurse for the preparation camp, the importance of getting to know the athletes and what needs to be taken into account in terms of preparations, such as for instance dietary requirements.
Listen to the first part of her interesting story.
