Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Students get hands on for Zoe Challenge
Fifteen students on the Masters degree in Osteopathy at Leeds Met will treat the 33 riders at the city campus Clinical Skills Suite on Wednesday 29 May when they pass through Leeds on the UK leg of this challenge, which runs from Hull to Southampton.
The riders will be taking on the Zoe Challenge, which traces a young Latvian girl's trafficked journey from Riga, Latvia, to Southampton. Zoe was told she would have a job at a hotel here in the UK but instead she was threatened, moved from town to town and forced to work as a prostitute before being rescued by Hope for Justice, the anti-human trafficking organisation. All sponsorship raised will go to the charity.
Osteopathy student and volunteer for Hope for Justice, Ole Gulliksen, explained: "Myself and my family have been inspired by Hope for Justice, who rescue trafficked people like Zoe all over the UK. I was keen to help highlight the work of the charity and the fact that this is happening on our doorsteps - West Yorkshire is the UK capital for trafficking.
"I was approached as a part-time sports masseur and osteopathy student and quickly got the students on the course excited about getting involved. We decided to set up the whole Clinical Skills Suite on campus and get some hands-on experience. By the time the riders get to Leeds Met, they will have cycled almost 2000 miles over 20 days so it will be a very different experience for us to tackle."
Senior Lecturer in Rehabilitation and Health Sciences at Leeds Met, Aaron Caseley, added: "Massage is a recognised way of improving recovery following strenuous exercise and we are keen to show that osteopathy is much more than correcting back problems. This event will give students invaluable experience in providing soft tissue massage, one of the many skills that they develop over the course of their four-year masters programme."