Dr Seren Evans was born and raised in Bala and during her time in sixth form, she used to play rugby for the local team.
But she had to quit after sustaining injuries, which led to her interest in 'fixing' people.
She went to Bangor University to do a degree in Sports Science, with the aim of becoming a sports physiotherapist.
We spoke to Seren recently after receiving her certificate for completing a Coleg Cymraeg funded PhD on injuries within the rugby Union.
"I've always been very interested in rugby, and enjoyed playing for a brief time, although I was injured more often than not! When I went to university to do my undergraduate degree, I was fortunate enough to spend a few years working with the North Wales Rugby team on the side of the pitch.
"I was aware that not much research had been done on semi-professional players, although it is an important step for those moving from playing in the community to playing professionally.
"I was also very interested to investigate the injuries that take place on the pitch, particularly the unrelated injuries – as in, those that happen without contact with anyone else, and were likely to be prevented.
"So the first thing I needed to do was to observe. After four years of observing all the injuries that were happening within the team, I discovered that the number of injuries in the semi-professional game matched those in the professional game. Therefore more needs to be done to better protect these players.
"In the second part of the research, I looked at how pre-season training can affect how likely a player is to have an unrelated injury on the pitch during the season itself.
"We know pre-training season conditioned players and prepared them for the games but there was no research to say that it prevented injuries.
"And what we discovered during my research was that a player is four times more likely to get an unrelated injury during the season if they hadn't trained enough before the season started.
"Then, by creating a 'pattern recognition' model using artificial intelligence, we also discovered that one of the elements that can lead to unrelated injury, specifically a injury of the ankle, was if the player had had a concussion in the past.
"If we don't recover the players well enough after a head injury – then we assume that balance, concussion and any other injuries under the surface will affect performance on the pitch and can lead to unrelated injury."
Seren is currently a Coleg Cymraeg associate lecturer in Sport Science at Bangor University, and is very grateful for the opportunities she has received by studying through the medium of Welsh. She said:
"Doing research on injuries within the rugby union during Covid was challenging, but I was lucky for the support I received from the Coleg which led to opportunities I had never imagined. I am now an Associate Researcher with World Rugby, and in my final months of studying a Physiotherapy course. I look forward to continuing lecturing, researching, and becoming a physiotherapist in the near future!"
Dr Seren Evans received her certificate for completing a Coleg Cymraeg funded PhD at the Coleg Cymraeg Annual Congregation on the 19th of March, 2024. Visit the Coleg’s You Tube channel to watch the ceremony.
