The Parkes Solar Farm stopped work on Tuesday to join approximately 50,000 Bouygues Construction employees, temporary workers and subcontractors around the world for the company’s annual health and safety day.

Guest speaker Nigel Smith, representing icare and the Australian Paralympic Committee, related his story of when he worked in Newcastle and got caught in a chain con- veyor at the age of 25 and lost a leg as a result.

It brought a dramatic change in his life – as a very active and keen sportsperson before the accident, he became angry and felt sorry for himself after the accident.

He eventually started playing social volleyball and in 2000 he represented Australia at the Paralympics in Australia. “Words don’t come easy to express what I felt. It was one of the proudest moments of my life repre- senting my country in my country. It was just the most phenomenal experience.”

Nigel’s message was that workers should always be looking out for each other, as the impact of a major injury on your own life and others around you, is very hard to deal with. He said even someone who had just witnessed an accident could be severely affected.

Wiradjuri elder Rob Clegg who did the welcome to country, had the same message for the 70 odd workers saying family always comes first, and “at work your fellow workers are your family”.

“In the Wiradjuri culture we take care of self and others, we have been here for thou- sands of years and we are still healthy.”

More than ten Parkes members of the Mitchell Conservatorium’s Lachlan Regional Orchestra embarked on a musical adventure with the Sydney Youth Orchestra (SYO) in Dubbo recenlty. It was an adventure designed to encourage, challenge and grow the local musicians.

Members attended workshops with the Peter Seymour Orchestra and the Sydney Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble, which are two branches of the SYO over two days. They worked on performance pieces with the SYO members. The end result was a combined concert with the SYO to treat the audience with a performance that was excit- ing and filled with enjoyment – both for the audience and the orchestras.

This event was not just valuable for the chance it provided for participants to perform with SYO kids, but more importantly, it was a wonderful opportunity to grow in the skills necessary for playing together with other musicians.

Playing in groups such as the Lachlan Regional Orchestra, the Parkes Shire Band and the Forbes Shire Band gives young musicians the chance to develop maturity in areas such as:

Lateral ligament sprains of the ankle are one of the most common sports injuries and because they are so common they are often managed too casually and many go untreated. From a clinical point of view the problem with a lateral ligament sprain of the ankle is that they have a very high inci- dence of recurrence. Gribble et al, 2016, Attenborough et al, 2015 and Tanen et al, 2014 (references can be supplied upon request), found 30-50% of the athletic population and 20% of the general population will go on to suffer from chronic ankle symptoms. These symptoms are often referred to as chronic ankle instability and include pain, swelling, laxity and instability.

The contributing factors to the development of chronic ankle instability include; Not seeking medical attention for the pri- mary lateral ankle sprain and return to sport when pain has decreased but function has not been fully restored. The absence of pain does not mean that you are ready to return to sport. Decreases in strength, range of movement, proprioception and balance need to be restored. Doherty et al, 2016 found that exercise therapy when performed in high doses (5 x 30 mins per week for 6 weeks) reduced the chances of recurrent lateral ligament sprains in the an- kle by 42% and bracing/taping reduced the risk by 62%. It is currently recommended that you brace or tape your ankle for every game and training session for at least 6 weeks.

The decision to return to sport after a lateral ligament sprain should be based on strength, balance and hop tests rather than time or absence of pain.

For the fitness of you

Linda Reilly