My second conference of 2024!

Catching up with Sean Savage!

The second conference I attended was the BOFAS annual scientific meeting which was held in March this year in Belfast. 

As usual, I didn’t book it well in advance as I wasn’t sure how I would feel with all things that had occurred in 2023. 

I had also never been to Belfast and didn’t know what to expect but, it was a pleasant surprise all in all. A beautiful city with plenty of history, wonderful architecture and the amazing Titanic Museum! 

Normally I go off by myself and hope to meet people I know, but this year it was a little different. One of the physio’s (Marina), I had met at another conference and who had attended my forefoot Masterclass in 2023, asked if we could arrange our stay at the same hotel. That seemed ideal as I attend to attend these things alone. 

BOFAS scientific meetings are very interesting but if you are attending as an Allied Health Professional (AHP) for the first time, it can feel a little intimidating. Although your team of consultants may be present, they may be busy catching up with their colleagues and you can feel like ‘Billy no mates’, like Marina had described it. 

I remember my first conference. It was in Guildford, I only attended for half day because I was so nervous and was lucky to have my nephew, Jay Thakrar, who is also a podiatrist attending too. I was a leech at his side and hung around with him for that entire half day! (Yes, I know how can have a nephew who is my age? We are huge family and that is all I can say on the matter!) The oddest thing I had I changed to my married name, we would both have the same surname! 

Luckily, a very senior founding member of AFAP, (Association of Foot & Ankle Professionals), who is pioneered including AHPs in the BOFAS was very much aware of ensuring our inclusion. She decided that if the AHPs had come for the whole event, she would encourage them to meet up for dinner on the first night to make them comfortable. Although, she was unable to attend this year, she had requested that the AFAP team to continue with this tradition. 

As it turned out, I also knew one of the speakers for the AHP session day. He was at the F&A show in Liverpool in February, and I had taken the liberty to introduce myself to him at the time. His name is Sean Savage. I had heard him speak at previous lectures, and on the UK Podiatry Facebook page and I am a fan of his work and an admirer of his down to earth attitude. 

Sean is local to Belfast and we were coming to his city! He was very welcoming indeed and took us under his wing. He very kindly arranged our dinner for the AHPs, and it immediately felt like he had been part of our team for years. There was more of podiatry presence this year than had been on any of the previous years – that made me smile with pride for our profession. Podiatry is small profession and although we are very good with what we do, we don’t exactly advertise it well.

Overall, the event was an immense success. The conference was an eye opener (as always). I gained new knowledge. I got to spend time with people from my professions (we had more people than just 2 like it normally is) as well as the physiotherapists but I also got to know our Foot & Ankle Fellow a little better, Iris Kwok who is an asset to our NHS foot &ankle team. I managed to catch up the registrars who had passed through our F&A unit at St Mary’s hospital and are now looking for consultants’ jobs. I had watched them grow and now they are ready to fly the nest as fellow consultants, again bringing me personally great pride.  

But more than anything, I was very happy to see the team with whom I had travelled to Kenya with for the COSECSA/BOFAS conference in 2022 and to further add that I went and introduced myself to the president of COSECSA, James Munthali as I am in awe of him. He is a very humble gentleman, a special person who does everything in his power to provide a better learning environment for his fellow African surgeon colleagues (something very close to my heart) and stories he shared were quite breath-taking. 

Looking forward to next BOFAS conference.