Meet Arthur

Arthur the orthotic.

Let’s rewind to winter 2023 about 6 months post stroke where I went to an orthotic appointment at my local hospital, a stiff, uncomfortable AFO (ankle foot orthotic) was shoved in my shoe and sent on my way, it was meant to improve my walking by assisting with foot position on steps; it did not. It over rotated my foot externally making me walk on the edge of my foot which was painful and ruined a pair of shoes within a day.

Within a couple of days I saw some of my regular physios who upon seeing the negative effect promptly removed it and put it in a bin, I was not sad to see it go.

Back to now times (autumn 2025) I visited a private clinic to trial an upper limb exoskeleton device to improve movement, but it was a no go (I may one day explain more). While at the clinic the physio and orthotist noted my walking with zero aids. Saying they thought it could be improved with an AFO. We tried 2 devices as an add on to the session.

I followed up a few weeks later returning to the clinic to give AFO a proper trial. I felt like Goldilocks after trying 6 different AFO devices on a walking track, up and down stairs, outside and inside : “too difficult to put on” “feels weird” “feels weak ” until we got the sweet spot of one that fits well, has a clever internal spring system and was adjusted to make it bespoke, off the shelf nhs generic one it is not.

Arthur (the orthotic) came home that day where I ended up walking 3 miles on day 1 and 4 miles on day 4. I don’t feel it makes a huge difference but I do feel a little sturdier. The hope is, in time, it will contribute to an increased speed too.

Arthur attaches to my leg and in my shoe which I like as it makes it discreet, until summer and short weather. And while he is 95% hidden under trousers the clever spring element sits to the side of my ankle and does look a bit like I’ve been tagged by the police.

I have a slight niggle in my head that it’s going backwards from using nothing to using an aid but I’m trying to mentally frame it as tidying up the walking. Let’s see how it goes.