A FORMER Russian circus artist, who recovered from a broken back and has since helped thousands of people suffering from spinal injuries, is keen to open a clinic in Britain.
Valentin Dikul, who defied doctors' predictions that he would never walk again after he fell from a trapeze, went on to set several weightlifting records. He has since treated dozens of British patients who travelled to Russia to undergo his unconventional therapy.
"I've opened up clinics in France, Italy, Japan and most recently in Poland," said Dikul, 70, who has received offers to set up in Britain.
"Over the years I've had many patients from Britain, but I can't treat all foreigners who come to me as I have limited bed capacity for people with more serious injuries.
"With the right local partner, I'd be happy to open up a clinic in Britain because it would make things much easier for British patients."
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Dikul, who runs several clinics in Moscow, said he has 136,000 applications for treatment from 36 countries, including Britain.
His patients, including paraplegics who have been told by their doctors that they will never walk or use their hands again, are put through a gruelling regime of exercise designed by Dikul, who broke his back aged 24 when a cable on his trapeze snapped.
His method seeks to encourage certain nerves and muscles to compensate for those that no longer function. As patients embark on a rigorous physical therapy programme, which lasts at least a year, their bodies are said to learn to reroute nerve impulses to healthy muscle groups, creating greater freedom of movement.
Dikul said his method is not a miracle cure that heals all his patients. But he claimed to have helped thousands of people who had been confined to wheelchairs to walk again.
"Normally people with spinal cord injury are taught to adapt to their environment, how to turn on a TV or light switch with a remote control, or work at a computer with his teeth, if need be," said Dikul, a bear of a man renowned for his iron will and quick temper.
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"What I'm trying to do is return the patient to the highest percentage of movement possible. Not everyone who comes here will walk again, but everyone will improve."
David Heard, who runs Sportability, a British charity, welcomed the possibility of a Dikul clinic in Britain. He first met the Russian 10 years ago when he arrived in Moscow with a friend who had damaged his spinal cord in a car accident.
They were so impressed by Dikul's methods, they brought three of his therapists back to Britain and opened a centre providing similar treatment. "I was pretty amazed by what I saw," recalled Heard, who later sent 30 Britons to Dikul's clinic but was forced to close his own when he ran out of funds.
"It is not a method suited to everyone, and of course results vary depending on the extent of the damage, but there's no doubt that he gets results."
After both his parents died, Dikul fled his orphanage to join a Soviet circus, where he became an accomplished trapeze artist. Refusing to give up hope after his accident, he studied anatomy and developed exercises so gruelling that he would sometimes pass out from exhaustion on the floor. After six years' rigorous training he took his first unaided steps.
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Two decades later he was back in the circus, juggling balls weighing 7 stone, lifting two-ton trucks and bending coins with his bare hands.
"I make no false promises," he said. "There's no quick cure here and in some cases we can do little. It's a painful and tough process and ultimately it all boils down to willpower. That's what cured me and that's what I tell my patients."