"Life-changing" new implant helps 81-year-old Basildon man get back to dancing
40 patients have received this new implant, which helps to reduce back pain
Last updated 20th Oct 2025
An 81-year-old Essex man is back on his feet dancing, after a new implant has helped to reduce his back pain.
Essex patients that have lived with long-term back pain are now seeing life-changing improvements in their mobility and wellbeing.
The innovative implant stimulates nerves controlling deep spinal muscles, helping patients to move more freely and reduce pain. It takes just half an hour each day.
40 patients across Orsett and Basildon Hospitals have received the implant, with Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust one of only 12 centres in England offering the advanced procedure.
We spoke to Stuart James, 81, about its "life-changing" impact.
He told us that he was getting "twinges" in his back around the year 2000, and that it "gradually got worse, to the point that if I did anything it would hurt.
"One particular thing I remember was on holiday waiting for a tour bus. As you do, you sit on a brick wall. The bus came along and I slid off, landed on my feet, and crumbled to the floor."
"It felt like a knife going straight up my back, and I had no strength in my legs at all. They just completely gave way."
He told us that he received multiple attempts to reduce his back pain since, involving pain killers and surgery.
"But that's when I met Dr Thomson, who's the guy who has done all this wonderful work on the implant.
"Before, I could barely walk, it was just too painful. It drains all the energy out of your limbs, your legs just don't function. Even standing still is excruciating.
"I've always been a dancer, for about the last 30 years.
"I could do a dance, and then I just had to sit down and wait for the pain to subside before doing another one, and that was really frustrating.
"The only way I was walking was with a walking stick."
He said that since he has had the implant, he hasn't had to use his walking stick anymore.
"I can dance. I can get up on the dance floor when it starts and I can do one after the other, after the other, for two hours."
Stuart said that the implant has been an "absolute life-changer" for him, as he is now able to do "ordinary" things every day again.
"I can look forward to life. I am happy."
Dr Thomson told us that the procedure is "restorative", and that it "actually restores the function of the core muscles that have been lost in the passage of time since their first episode of back pain."
He said that there is "no other treatment" and that this implant is "actually a bit of a revolution."
"The knowledge around what we're doing has only been available really for the last 10 years. SO some people I've spoken to have asked about why they had never been told about this before, and it's because we didn't know.
"The development of these devices takes time.
"We've accrued a lot of high quality evidence, so now we are able to convince our medical colleagues."