Children's patient stories

As 16-year-old Mimi climbed to the top of the giant Slitherine water slide in Dubai’s Atlantis aquaventure park, she had a momentary change of heart. Just three months before, the teenager from Walton on Thames, Surrey, had undergone major back surgery for scoliosis and started the difficult process of recovery. Seconds after her moment of doubt, she was plunging down the slide with her little sister, while their mum Tamara looked on.

Bode's (14) surgery fitted her with one titanium and one cobalt chrome rod on either side of her spine held in place by 18 screws. Comparing the before and after X-Rays, they managed to make her spine perfectly straight which Bode says, "was incredible.” She’s now reassuring other young patients with Idiopathic Adolescent Scoliosis.

Rhiannon was an active 14-year-old girl. When she occasionally complained to her parents about aches and pains in her back, there was no reason to think it was anything more sinister than sore muscles from one of her dance classes, or something she’d pulled while horse riding.