Herbert Leah: It was interesting to read the letters from Karen Hambly and Cliff North regarding their recovery from operations and the part that the Concept 2 Indoor Rower has played in their recovery and their commitment to it's continued use as their experiences are very similar to my own.I started to use the machine as a tool to further my recovery from a left hip joint replacement. In the late 1970s I was diagnosed as having early O/A changes in my left hip joint that continued to deteriorate slowly, finally being operated on in June 1990. At this stage I had little or no movement in the joint; putting a sock on the left foot or tying a shoelace was out of the question and I had long since given up my cycling. With this restriction I used to swing the leg forward when walking by flexing the lumbar spine. The foundry lads at the company where I worked were notorious for giving personal nicknames; mine was Herr Flick from Hello, Hello.Previous to this period I had been a keen cyclist and I was introduced as an early teenager to lifting weights. I attended Loughborough College (as it was known then). Later I volunteered for the Army and served first in an infantry regiment and later in the Army Physical Training Corps so my early years hadn't been sedentary.After the army (1952) I did much hill walking/trekking, canoeing, some rock climbing, weights and cycling, now with my wife on the back of a lightweight tandem. All this went by the board as the hip deteriorated although I kept up the weights, modified to the restrictions of the hip. Once a leg is out of the picture it is very difficult to influence aerobic fitness and as time went on there was much muscle wastage around the hip, buttock and thigh.After the operation I started cycling as soon as I was allowed and once back at work (Social/Recreation Manager) weight training section of the Social Club were, coincidentally, considering purchasing an aerobic training machine. I recalled on one of my annual visits to the Birmingham Exhibition Centre to the Recreation and Leisure Industry Trade Fair I had been impressed with a certain rowing machine that seemed so superior to other machines on display, although I couldn't try them because of the hip. Needless to say the committee were soon in possession of an Indoor Rower around April 91. It proved a great success and is still operating.It was, of course, just what I needed to work on my wasted musculature and mobility of the joint but I got hooked and eventually decided to enter the 1992 British Championship at Shiplake College and to my surprise I came away with a Silver at a heavyweight, but only just, which was the beginning of many future hours of training and all as a lightweight. Whatever success and satisfaction I may have experienced must be attributed to Mr Hodgkinson the consultant who operated on me and given me 15 years of a better quality of life than I would have had without his skill and constant interest in my progress over the years.As a small token of my appreciation I gave him one of my World Championship 'Hammers' which is in the museum of the John Charnley Hip Centre at Wrightington Hospital; John Charnley, of course, being the famous pioneer of hip surgery.