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30 September 2021
Survivor Winner’s Next Challenge for Pain Research
Hayley Leake
Research Assistant at Neuroscience Research Australia
2021 Survivor: Brain v Brawn Winner
Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) & PhD Candidate
Last month, the country watched as our very own University of South Australia graduate and PhD candidate, Hayley Leake, triumphed over her competition to win the title of Sole Survivor in Season 6 of Survivor: Brain v Brawn.
Now Hayley is taking on a new challenge – albeit with the same runners that lasted her 48 days in the unforgivable Australian outback – in Pain Revolution’s Go The Distance Challenge.
Hayley has seen firsthand the impact chronic pain can have on an individual. She continually works to improve the quality of life of people living with pain and minimise the social and economic burden of pain, particularly in adolescents.
“Having grown up in rural Australia, I know that accessing healthcare can be challenging, and so it is fantastic that this campaign is directly aiming to improve pain outcomes for people in rural and regional Australia,” Hayley says.
“Survivor was a huge challenge, but many Australians face the challenge of pain every day. I am passionate about pain awareness and am proud to get behind Go The Distance to raise money to support people living with pain.”
“I am so excited to be committing to run and walk 200km over the month of October to raise awareness for Pain Revolution’s Go The Distance.”
Pain Revolution, the people-powered movement reimagining pain care and education through understanding, empowerment and long-term capacity building, is back in action for 2021 with a virtual challenge throughout the month of October, that will see the community walk, run or cycle iconic trails around the world.
Whether it’s trekking Papua New Guinea’s Kokoda Trail, cycling through Spain on the Camino de Santiago or scaling the heights of Mt Everest’s Base Camp, the virtual challenge aims to raise funds to support Australians living with persisting pain.
After graduating from her Bachelor of Physiotherapy with Honours, and six years as a physiotherapist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Hayley embarked on a PhD under the supervision of internationally lauded Professor Lorimer Moseley AO, Inaugural Chair in Physiotherapy, Director of IIMPACT in Health Group, and founder of Pain Revolution.
With 1 in 5 Australians living with pain it is likely that someone you know is directly affected and Hayley’s doctoral research centres around optimising pain education interventions for adolescents with chronic pain.
“Up to a third of adolescents experience chronic pain, limiting their schooling and social-development and often persisting into adulthood,” Hayley says. “Best-evidence guidelines recommend active, biopsychosocially-informed treatments, so why don’t most teenagers receive this?”
“The answer may reflect how adolescents with chronic pain interpret the meaning of their pain. If pain is attributed to a biomedical cause (e.g. pain means tissue damage), then biopsychosocially-informed treatments (e.g. psychology) are likely to appear counterintuitive.”
“Due to advancements in modern pain science, we now have a better understanding of how pain persists. Adults with chronic pain receive this knowledge via pain science education where they learn how and why pain is produced, allowing informed choices about their care. Currently there are no guidelines tailoring this education to adolescents with chronic pain.”
“My PhD research addresses this critical gap by establishing curriculum for adolescent pain science education, informed by pain experts (clinicians, researchers and young people with chronic pain).”
Over the past four years, together the Pain Revolution community has crossed more than 5,850 kilometres of Australian countryside for their annual Rural Outreach Tours and funds raised have been able to support 54 Local Pain Educators build capacity and provide the latest information in pain science and care to rural Australians.
Thanks to the generosity of their supporters, a number of Local Pain Collectives – community-based interdisciplinary networks of health professionals – have also been established and are meeting regularly to further build their skills in pain education and care.
Support from the Go The Distance Challenge will build upon this work modernising the understanding of pain in rural and regional communities as research clearly shows that a better understanding of pain, and what to do about it is both critical and seldom delivered.
Knowledge is powerful and there is hope for people in persistent pain.
Support Hayley in her Go The Distance Challenge here.
Take On The Challenge
Ready to go the distance? It’s easy to get started. Sign up. Choose your distance. Make a difference.
It's not a race. It's a journey, so you get to choose the destination. Use one of our iconic trails or create your own. Go your own pace. Set the bar high, or low, it’s up to you! No one's judging, the challenge is yours. Then, connect your fundraising page to the Strava app or manually update your activity to see how close you are to reaching your goal. Share your progress and achievements with others going the distance.
Get your family and friends involved. Create a team or ask them to sponsor your Pain Revolution challenge, raising money and vital support to revolutionise pain care and education.
Sign up or find out how to support people in chronic pain here.
