Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
The Pedalling Prof of Pain rides the Flippin' Pain Tour again
On 7 May 2023, I took part in the second community outreach cycle tour organised by Flippin’ Pain™ to raise awareness of the impact of persistent pain and offer people strategies to aid recovery.
Our Flippin’ Pain Peloton included people living with pain, people running pain support groups, and clinicians and scientists. This year, the Flippin’ Pain tour rode across some of the most challenging terrain the UK can throw at cyclists, and we covered approximately 200 miles in 5 days.
Our ethos is to change the way people think about, talk about, and treat persistent pain. Flippin’ a person’s understanding of pain could change their life forever. We rode approximately 40 miles per day and delivered lectures to the public and health care professionals in cities and towns in the North East of England, e.g., Darlington, Guisborough, Whitby, Redcar, Hartlepool, and Durham.
Flippin' Pain aims to Educate, Engage, and Empower people to live healthy lives with pain using 6 key messages:
- Persistent pain is common and can affect anyone
- Hurt does not always mean harm
- Everything matters when it comes to pain
- Medicines and surgeries are often not the answer
- Understanding your pain can be key
- Recovery is possible
Check out the Flippin' Pain website to find out more.
As a passionate cyclist, part of my role was to support less experienced riders. Invariably, they end up supporting me, as I lose my way, puncture, and fall off. The Tour is transformational for all involved and provides life-long memories and relationships. The Tour showcases the innate human capacity to support each other and on this occasion all riders finished The Tour, under a police escort, at Durham city centre.
The Flippin’ Pain Cycle Tour is inspired by our Australian counterparts, Pain Revolution and Prof. Lorimer Moseley, a world leader in pain education. Lorimer joined us on the Flippin Pain Tour to experience the exhilaration of riding bicycles on cold, wet, windy, hilly, busy, and potholed U.K. roads. He loved it!
We are raising money for the charity Pain Concern that works to improve the lives of people living with pain and those who care for them. You can find out more about the event at my Pedalling Prof of Pain’s fundraising page
Professor Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson is Professor of Pain and Analgesia. He is an international expert on the science of pain and its management and the world leader on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). He has published over 300 peer reviewed articles.
