Creative Clinical Director and Consultant Podiatrist
Fellow of the Royal College of Podiatrists in both Podiatric Surgery and Podiatric Medicine .
FRCPodS, FRCPodMed, FFPM RCPS (Glasg), DPodM, PGDip (Pod)
Elected May 2022 Regional Board Member RCPSG Faculty of Podiatric Medicine
Director of Royal College of Podiatry 2000 -2021
Trustee of Arch Support Charity 1193688
Trustee of Belling Educational Foundation, Enfield Council
Visitor Podiatry Partner with HCPC.
Local Conservative Councillor, Enfield Town Ward.
Emma Supple : foot specialist, mother of three, writer, inventor, the creator of Supplefeet.com.
Inventor of SuppleArches (Full British patent. European Patent granted) It is a very long story that included USA patent applications, Australia and Canada and One Day will be an everyday product .
Inventor of "Central Band Mechanics", "Perfect heel height" And
Supple London The Mineral Foot Cream for supple soft feet Finally back into production thanks to Smink laboratories.
Supplefeet is my vision for podiatry clinics and services, inc physiotherapy.
High quality, innovative and all- encompassing Supple footcare and Suppletherapy services.
A podiatry practice where clinicians and other professionals in the Supple London Clinical team work together for greatest benefit to the client.
I am not an ordinary clinician:
Trained as a Podiatrist in Durham, New College.
I initially worked as a podiatrist in central London. My first NHS Senior 2 role was in Harlow and then rapidly moved to Pimlico the Bessborough clinic. My days of doing home visits around the Churchill Gardens and Peabody Estates on foot, carrying my awkwardly shaped Mothercare box, were formative. At that time I had an extra job as an NHS family planning clinic clerk that meant a whole new world of chaperoning and working with very different clinical groups.
Whilst I was working for Riverside NHS Trust I was involved in caring for the young men affected by AIDS. It was a dreadfully sad time and I was honoured to meet, treat and befriend several of these men on the 6th floor of Westminster Hospitial. My time there also saw my interest and passion for Podiatric Rheumatology take hold and working with the Podiatric Surgeons, I started my interest in Podiatric Surgery.
I then worked for Enfield Primary Care Trust for over a decade as an Extended Scope Practitioner in Podiatry for the NHS. I held a Consultant Podiatrist ( p/t) post at Chase Farm Hospital within the Trauma & Orthopaedic Directorate from 2005 to 2013. We think that I was the first woman to hold a substantive Consultant post in the NHS in Orthopaedics as a Podiatric Surgeon.
My Fellowship in Podiatric surgery studying was at West Middlesex University Hospital for three years. This training included residencies in the USA, where I worked as a podiatrist in Chicago for three months at the Weil Institute with Dr Lowell Weil Snr and his wonderful team and then completed a surgical residency in Detroit.
I served on the Board of the Council of the now Royal College of Podiatry for many terms in office. Ending my 21 years on the Board as a Vice-President of the College of Podiatry in 2021.
I have many fond memories of my years on Council. It has been a privilege and an honour to represent my profession through many changes to the modern profession we see today and a bright future as a Royal College.
In my time on Council I organised two annual conferences in London and Nottingham. One memorable moment was a dinner and dance boat trip on the Dixie Queen sailing under Tower Bridge, my new born baby son was away from me - the bridge was raised and David Blaine was hanging out in a glass box!
Masters Surgeon accreditation in Detroit USA in the sub talar joint arthroeresis with Dr Michael Graham DPM with first hand experience of the procedure as I have my right foot corrected. Fifteen years plus at least now in and still going fine. ( I am often contacted via Ask Miss Supple online to check on this.) Hyprocure by Gramedica
I am the first, and - so far - only, British Podiatrist to be interviewed on the USA Podiatric Meet the Masters run by the indomitable Master Podiatrist Dr Bret Ribotsky DPM. Emma Supple Interview Meet the Masters These interviews were and are a goldmine of podiatric information.
Supple Arches
I am a proven innovative clinician with an international patent for my revolutionary invention of Central Band Mechanic insoles, The SuppleArches TM, formerly marketed in the USA by TriStar who got the concept and named them Comfiheels . However the much promised roll out was never achieved and so I retook control and renamed them Supple Arches. These are truly great ( I would say that) and I regularly lose them from my own shoes to ease someone elses foot discomfort! The road to global success and product in everyones shoes every day has been bumpy but we will get there.
In my whole career to date I have never seen anything like them and they are constantly jumping from my shoes to rescue yet another painful pair of feet! Much work still to be done with these and currently working on a 3D printing app which is very exciting. They need to be an integral part of Supple London shoes.
Perfect Heel Height
I love books, have a big collection of all kinds of books and "collect" words and phrases. I coined the term "perfect heel height" to aid optimal shoe choices. As a dedicated high heel wearer myself I have limited patience with my (often male) colleagues decrying the use of heels.
Other podiatry words I have coined are -
- "growing your own drawing pin" ( when someone presents with a painful corn!)
- "heel beaters" when your style of walking creates extra heel forces.
- "101010 " this is really exciting as we conservatively treat verrucas.
- "Central Band Mechanics" or CBM for short. My vision on how the foot needs to work optimally.
Ballet World
Our eldest daughter is now a graduated ballerina / dancer and has made us officially BunHead parents. She has now graduated from the Central School of Ballet, London BA Hons degree course.
My interest and expertise is ever increasing in this all important field of work. Through her and my youngest who also Dances we have attended ballet competitions and festivals etc and learnt so much.
Media. Embarassing Bodies and Live from the Clinic, Channel 4 and much more
I am regularly asked to comment on the role of Podiatrists and all matters Feet in the Media. I have been on the sofa at Breakast TV both BBC and ITV.
Two visits to the Woman's Hour Studio at BBC House which was a real career highlight. .
Featured on BBC World service and presented as the foot expert in Embarassing Bodies and Ten Years Younger. I introduced the nation to the term "windswept bunions."
The video of me treating a chaps corn on Embarassing Bodies was viewed on YouTube some 250k times! What was not filmed was even funnier as he was needle phobic, threw up and fell off the couch - he was fine and all was well, but thankfully the cameras had stopped rolling!
Before YouTube was a thing, I taped small clinical snippets for NHS Clinical and those have been hugely successful. Ingrowing toenails, Elderly feet, Corns & Callus, children's feet etc all got the Supple treatment and advice.
Newspapers, magazines, social media all manner of local, national and sometimes global work. My work on how much does foot surgery cost the taxpayer ended up being reported on as far afield as Argentina!
We had many film crews in our old small clinic over the years and it has been a real pleasure to see the role and recognition of the clinical expertise of Podiatry become more widespread. Now we have a clean and bright new clinic we look forward to much more content making.
I need to get with the TikTok and myriad worlds of Bereal and Insta!
HCPC
For over a decade I sat on the fitness to practice panels as a Professional Partner with the Health and Social Care Professions Council (HCPC). Today I am a HCPC Visitor which is the role of working in partnership with academics to validate, approve and review Podiatry courses across the four devolved countries.
It has been very encouraging to be part of the development of Masters programmes, new degree courses and Apprenticeship degrees etc . We have even seen a dramatic and much needed uptake in future podiatrists post pandemic as people choose Podiatry as their new career.
Parliament and the Right to wear High Heels- or Flats as you choose.
Even Parliament has experienced the Supple effect with a speech I made to the Parliamentary Health & Safety committee in 2009 where I highlighted the issues around working feet and women being compelled to wear high heels for work. Clearly no-one had even stopped to think that work shoes did not always mean steel toe capped boots. The TUC took this up and it was debated at a national level. It generated a huge amount of Media attention. Even and including page 3 of The Sun!
I was delighted to witness the High heels and work place dress code revisited in 2016 take place in Porticullis House instigated by the fearless Nicola Thorp. Debating institutionalised sexism and all its manifestations. #highheelsatwork.
And my delight at the Parliamentary debate on 6th March 2017 with the Minister for Women and Equalties, Caroline Dineage MP who marvellously stated " We are putting our Collective Foot Down!" Fantastic. The debate is ongoing and is in our clinics but so much further since 2009 when even fashion had declared war on womens feet with "Killer heels" and "Gladiator" sandals.
In 2019 I was invited back onto Woman's Hour BBC Radio 4 to talk about the rise of use of "Comfortable shoes." Chatting with Jenni Murray and Victoria Moss, the Daily Telegraph fashion editor was fun. Made a pleasing change from the many ways we choose to wear uncomfortable shoes and talking about what ways to make shoes more comfortable!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00021qc
Plans for the future include the rolling out of more Supplefeet / Supple London clinics. Global distribution of the SuppleArches and Supple London products and more lecturing.
We are also huge advocates of the wonderful Yoga Sandals as I really regard these as an essential part of making feet stronger and healthier. They make a huge difference to those of us who wear them. Yoga Sandals
My vision and aim is that we as a Supplefeet team can contribute to your well being, your foot health and in the process enjoy taking care of you and your needs.
Please do let us know how we are helping you with your feet journey.
With Best wishes
Emma Supple
