Olympian backs clinics in business of relieving pain

OLYMPIC swimmer Mark Foster has given his support to a Yorkshire business that could free thousands of people from the misery of back pain.

Leeds-based Freedom Back Clinics plans to create a nationally branded high street network of specialist chiropractor, osteopath and physiotherapy clinics.

The company has created 18 jobs by opening clinics in Canary Wharf, in London, and Manchester.

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They are the first clinics to be opened since the business was launched in Leeds city centre in September 2009, and, subject to finding the right properties, a further six to eight more clinics are planned before the end of the year.

The 1,100 sq ft Canary Wharf clinic was launched by Mr Foster, who has been plagued with back pains for much of his career.

The 2,500 sq ft Manchester clinic, which will officially open at the end of February, occupies a site within a listed building next to Albert Square.

Yorkshire entrepreneurs, Andrew Thirkill and David Hood, established Freedom Back Clinics after they spotted a gap in the market for high street neck and back treatment. The Leeds clinic has treated more than 10,000 sufferers in its first year.

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Diane McKerracher, the chief executive of Freedom Back Clinics, plans to open clinics around Britain. She said: “The popularity of the Leeds clinic has given us the confidence that this model will prove to be successful in the rest of the UK.

“The key, however, is to find the right property in key locations, and much of our work over the last 12 months has been identifying and negotiating contracts with those properties that meet the right criteria.

“There are certainly some very exciting times ahead for the company and I am looking forward to driving the expansion forward from our head office in Leeds.”