Bury Physio Clinic massage therapist and champion athlete from Hadleigh works on ITV's 'The Games'

A massage therapist who works in Bury St Edmunds and has been county champion in hammer, discus and shot put for the last five years put his knowledge to the test after working on an ITV programme.

Oliver Graham, 21, of Hadleigh, has recently joined the team at Bury Physio Clinic and been competing as a senior athlete for Shaftesbury and Barnet, a premier division club in London, for the last three years.

He is also part of the Great Britain under-23 squad and aiming for the British and European Championships over the next few years.

And he recently had the chance to put his expertise to the test after coaching hammer to a group of celebrities on ITV programme 'The Games', which aired its last episode last week and sees the celebs take on Olympic-style events.

Ollie said he enjoyed the experience and speaking to the celebrities gave him a different perspective on his sport.

“It was really good to talk to them and listen to people of a completely different walk of life and understand the sport from a different perspective," he said.

Ollie started at the Bury Physio Clinic around two months ago.

He said colleagues there think he doesn't 'actually rest' as up until the weekend he was working every day to get the filming for the show done on top of his day job.

Anna Clayton, director of the clinic, said appearing on the show was an 'amazing opportunity' for Ollie.

“The format of the programme is a breath of fresh air for athletes competing in hammer throwing, their sport at last getting the media coverage which has always been lacking," she said.

“'The Games' highlights the importance of how physiotherapy and sports massage therapy can impact performance and recovery.”

She added: “Ollie believes strongly that both sports massage therapy and physiotherapy promote positive outcomes for people’s physical and mental wellbeing, not only in sport but also in everyday life.”

The opportunity to work on the programme arose after Ollie's strength and conditioning coach, Rob Thickpenny, was approached by ITV.

Rob then drafted Ollie in to help him with training the celebrities.

Ollie said there may be the opportunity to work on next year's series.