Paisley gran opens up on how life-changing training helped her after fall

Mary Findlay, 81, put into practice what she learned with Renfrewshire older people’s charity Roar – Connections for Life.

A Paisley grandmother has told how life-changing training helped when she fell while at home alone.

Widow Mary Findlay had the confidence and skills to pull herself off the ground after taking a tumble in the back garden earlier this summer.

The mother-of-five fell backwards into the mud from a box she uses while weeding – but managed to roll herself over to a sturdy plant pot and pull herself up off the ground to safety.

Mary was able to adopt the new floor-rise training she had learned after attending a course at Renfrewshire older people’s charity Roar – Connections for Life.

The pensioner has praised the five-week course – delivered in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University researcher Shane Seeley – during Falls Prevention Week.

The 81-year-old, who was quite immobile following previous falls, described the new training as “life-changing”.

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She said: “Months before I did the floor-rise training, I was quite immobile. My legs were pretty bad and I had quite a few serious falls where I ended up in hospital.

“I can honestly say that the training has changed my life. Even my daughter, who is a yoga teacher, said the difference in me is like night and day.

“I don’t think I would have had the confidence or strength to pull myself up off the ground if the fall in the garden had happened before I had the training. I feel like a different woman and it’s all thanks to Shane and Roar.”

Shane, who is a physiotherapy researcher in the School of Health and Life Sciences’ Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) Ageing Well group, has been exploring the effectiveness of the floor-rise exercises for older people, in partnership with Roar, with the hope that it will be rolled out across Scotland.

Shane added: “Mary is an amazing woman and the floor-raise exercises gave her the confidence to get up off the ground when she fell in her garden. As part of my study, I ran a five-week class with older people where they practised getting up and down off of the floor.

“At the end, the group was better able to independently rise from the floor and confidence to complete this task was also significantly improved.

“This is important as when older adults fall and cannot rise for over an hour, there are many harmful physical and psychological consequences.”

Cassie Forbes, Roar CEO, said: “Floor-rise training is essential in later life and can literally save your life. Roar would like to thank Shane for delivering the training to a group of Roar service users and evidencing the importance of these vital techniques of getting up and down from the floor.”

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