Margaret Finch has spent most of her life working in retail. At the age of 77 she’s still going strong, while also enjoying spending time with her family.
Over the past couple of years, however, Margaret has started to encounter serious knee issues – but she hasn’t let them stop her.
This is Margaret’s story…
I worked in Tesco on the tills for 25 years, and these days I still work in a shop during the holiday season here in Cornwall – so as you can imagine I’ve spent a lot of time on my feet. I’ve got three children and three grandchildren; I love spending time with all of them and I’m fortunate enough they all live quite close to me.
I’ve got a lovely dog called Megan who I walk twice a day. I’ve got to an age where I feel really happy and fortunate in life. I live the life I want to. I love being a grandparent, all my grandchildren are just gorgeous.
Funnily enough, I’ve also discovered rock music in later life! I go to local rock concerts as much as I can with my friend. My youngest son was always into things like Guns & Roses and I’ve only recently discovered it but it’s just so much fun. I love watching football and rugby.
I try to keep active; I’ve got an indoor exercise bike, I used to be in a dance group and I used to do yoga. So I’ve always enjoyed finding and doing new and different things.
In 2022 I finally had to have a full knee replacement operation. In the build-up to it I’d been in agony – basically wheelchair-bound because I was in such pain. I’d had X-rays and seen numerous doctors and was told the knee was essentially bone on bone, so no wonder it hurt! I had to go through rehab after the operation and my children kindly came and took care of me during the first week. But afterwards that knee felt like new, which I suppose it was.
Of course, due to the state of the knee that was replaced I’d been putting a lot of strain on the other knee. The doctors told me there was a bit of osteoarthritis in that knee as well. The pain was getting worse and worse so I went back to the doctors and they said last March if the pain got any worse I could call them and they’d look to do a replacement on that one as well.
So in January I gave them a call because it was getting to be too much. I happened to mention all of this to a friend one day and she told me about FlexiSEQ. She was using it on a bad knee as well and said FlexiSEQ was really helping her. So I thought I’d give it a go. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think FlexiSEQ was going to work for me but it really did.
I still have to take paracetamol alongside FlexiSEQ to manage the pain but FlexiSEQ is definitely helping to keep me moving. And the test came when I went on a cruise with my daughter and I forgot to pack my FlexiSEQ. My daughter is always on at me to keep walking and she was making me walk 15,000 steps a day on this cruise! So my knee really was feeling it.
It makes a difference that it is drug-free as well. Because I know I need paracetamol it’s reassuring to know FlexiSEQ is free of anything like that so I can use it without worrying. For me the most important thing is that if I put it on in the morning and at night – I walk around in shorts while I let it dry so I don’t have to cover it – it really helps me. It’s allowed me to keep walking, and two short walks a day is just what I need.
FlexiSEQ is keeping me going until my next operation and I’ve been recommending it to any of my friends who mention joint pain.
