The first Sharks Medical Centre outside of Durban was opened in Howick recently. Located at Midlands Wellness & Fitness Centre at the Howick Medical Centre under the ownership of Paul and Lisa Candler, the Centre will provide services to sportsmen and women and the general public.
Photo credit: Gameplan Media
The first Sharks Medical Centre was opened by Dr Glen Hagemann, a former Sharks Team Doctor. Dr Hagemann, speaking at the launch, said that if you’d ever been associated with the Sharks you will know that a culture of excellence pervades the stadium.
“Such a culture is integral to producing winning teams,” said Hagemann. “The Sharks Medical Centre is an extension of this culture.”
“The mission of the Centre is not only to be a culture of rugby medical excellence, but to utilize the unique pool of expertise at Sharks Medical to provide medical services to athletes of all levels and sporting disciplines, post-operative and post cardiac surgery patients, corporate executives and children.”
Hagemann added that it was part of their mission to establish satellite centres throughout the province. The Centre in Howick is the first outside of the Durban area.
Paul Candler said that it was now common place for teams of all levels to expect current, evidence-based protocols for conditioning, injury prevention, nutrition and rehabilitation.
“As a Sharks Medical Centre the first step would be to promote and facilitate existing programs and protocols developed by Sharks Medical in the local schools,” said Candler.
Programs such as the Discovery Sharksmart Programme, concussion management programmes as well as seminars on conditioning and injury prevention would be amongst the first to be launched.
In the longer term the idea is to create a fully-fledged centre of excellence in Sports Medicine using as many local experts as possible. Moves are also planned to develop a cardiac rehabilitation programme under this banner.
Attended by over a hundred people including many from the medical fraternity, the launch was held at Midlands Wellness and Fitness Centre. Candler was adamant that this affiliation would not affect the gym and that is was through the Biokinetic and Sports and Therapeutic Massage practices that the association with Sharks Medical was launched.
The event which saw the only SECA body composition analyser in the Southern hemisphere demonstrated, was sponsored by Kendon Medical Supplies and Delta Surgical Supplies.
Rod Mackenzie, the Sales Director of Kendon Medical Supplies said how he was impressed by the true community spirit of Howick and commented on the passion that Paul and Lisa have for their work.
The Biokinetic and Massage practices specialize in injury rehabilitation, conditioning for sport, general rehabilitation from orthopaedic trauma and the chronic diseases.
For more information contact the Centre on 033 3307003 or
