Caving team discover 'dream' 10km network under Forest of Dean
"The first time when we stepped into the new passage when there was just two of us - all of our dreams had come true," Dr Nichols said."That exploratory urge to go and find where no person has ever been before is really special."With each trip it just kept getting better and better."He explained a strong draught in the boulder filled passage at the end of the original network of caves had inspired him to delve deeper.Through sheer determination his team of explorers successfully dug past the boulders in August last year."You have to pinch yourself, it is a once in a lifetime [find]."Every trip's just been like another birthday present and every trip we've been finding something different.""Caves remain one of those things on the planet that are largely undiscovered."True genuine exploration - that's what's exciting about it," Dr Nichols added.
Dr Nichols went on to explain how "it's the biggest find" in the UK in a long time.The last discovery was made in 2010 in what is now the UK's longest cave system called The Three Counties, which was initially thought to be three separate systems. But in 2010, cavers discovered they were in fact interconnected making it 87km (54 miles) long.
In the 1990s, Mr Taylor began exploration work on the Redhouse Lane Swallet in the Forest of Dean and after two years of digging discovered the initial cave system which was around a mile long.Mr Taylor said he is "extremely honoured and proud" to be a part of this history-making discovery."I started caving when I was just 13 years old and I'm 71 years old now," he said."To be the very first person to shine your light down that passage and put your footprints down - it's an amazing experience," Mr Taylor added.
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Injuries can be brutal and take a year to recover only is the risk three to eight times greater in women than men, depending on the sport, but they are becoming more common, says Dr Thomas Dos'Santos, a sports biomechanics researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University. However, there is "no simple answer" to explain the greater risk in women, he it could be down to differences in anatomy. Bigger hips in women mean the top of the thigh bone starts from a wider position and this changes the angle it connects to the lower leg at the knee, potentially increasing risk. The ACL is also slightly smaller in women "so it's a little bit weaker, potentially", Dr Dos'Santos explains. ACL injuries can happen at all stages of the menstrual cycle, but hormonal changes are also being investigated, including a study sponsored by Fifa, the governing body for world football. High levels of oestrogen prior to ovulation could alter the properties of ligaments, making them a bit more stretchy so "there could be an increased risk of injury, theoretically," he Dr Dos'Santos argues it's important to think beyond pure anatomy as women still do not get the same quality of support and strength training as compares it to ballet, where dancers do receive good quality training. "The [difference in] incidence rates is basically trivial between men and women," Dr Dos'Santos is research into whether it is possible to minimise the risk of ACL injuries, by training female athletes to move in subtly different there is a risk of lessening performance, and some techniques that put strain on the ACL – like dropping the shoulder to deceive a defender before bursting off in another direction – are the necessary moves in sports like football."We can't wrap them up in cotton wool and say you should avoid playing sport," Dr Dos'Santos says. "What we need to do is make sure that they're strong enough to tolerate those loads, but it isn't just as simple as some people saying we can 100% eradicate ACL injuries, we can't." No longer 'mini-men' Even though there are still many unanswered question, it is still a world of difference for Katy Daley-McLean at Sale Sharks she got her first cap in 2007, she remembers that all the assumptions around how her body would perform were based on the data from male rugby players."We were literally treated as mini-men," Daley-McLean now, she says, girls and women don't feel like the outsiders in sport, which is not only improving performance at the elite level but helping to keep more women in sport."It's awesome, it's something to be celebrated because if you look at the stats, one of the biggest reasons young girls drop out of sport is body image, it's around periods and not having a correct sports bra, which is so easily sorted."Inside Health was produced by Gerry Holt
