A GRANDFATHER has urged others to take part in clinical trials after a new environmentally-friendly cast aided his recovery from a broken wrist.

Charles Bee, 72, broke his wrist after falling from a chair while doing some DIY at his home in Charlbury last September.

However, rather than being fitted with a standard fibreglass cast, Mr Bee was asked to trial a new wooden cast as part of an NHS study.

He said: “I went to hospital, I had an x-ray which confirmed I broke my wrist and was given a fibreglass cast.

“Afterwards, I attended the fracture clinic at the John Radcliffe Hospital and I was asked if I wanted to try a new wooden splint as part of a clinical trial.

“What made me want to take part in the trial, one pure and simple reason, was everybody should put themselves forward for us to move things on.

“There’s got to be people that are prepared to move things forward and this is one of the things I wanted to do because it looked lightweight and that was a major asset for me.”

Fibreglass is the most commonly used casting material in the UK for the treatment of broken wrists, however it is composed of non-biodegradable materials.

Also, broken bones often become displaced as swelling reduces and rigid fibreglass casts sometimes need to be replaced every couple of weeks to account for this.

The biodegradable wooden cast can be removed and remoulded when heated up, so does not need to be replaced with new material.

The Woodcast study - supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - is looking at whether the wooden cast is a comfortable alternative to a fibreglass cast for holding broken wrist bones in place.

Patients attending the John Radcliffe Hospital were asked to take part in the University of Oxford study and were randomly allocated to receive either a fibreglass cast or the wooden cast, to compare the two.

The grandfather-of-five said the wooden cast was a benefit to him, as it could be split along the middle making it removable when necessary.

Mr Bee said: “It solved a problem. The splint being removable enabled me to take it off if needed and shower without it which for me personally was a big advantage.”

The study’s chief investigator at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Mr Stephen Gwilym, said: “Woodcast has theoretical advantages in terms of patient comfort and environmental cost.

“We hope that Woodcast will improve comfort for patients, be more environmentally friendly through using recycled wood, and reduce treatment costs if it can be re-modelled for the duration of treatment rather than multiple cast applications.”

For more information on clinical trials visit www.ukctg.nihr.ac.uk.