Our Story: Lived Experience

Bloodworks Ltd was born from lived experience, academic passion, and a deep commitment to community health.

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Our story starts in 2008, when anabolic steroid use was making its way out of elite sports and into everyday gyms, used by people you’d never expect.

 

At the time, the founder was working in a Needle Exchange in Middlesbrough, while on day release from HMP Kirklevington Grange. Between late 2007 and October 2008, he balanced life in the criminal justice system with studying for a Master's at Teesside University.

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While inside, he earned all his gym qualifications and, upon release, became Team Leader of the Teesside University gym. It was there that he invited Dr. Harrison Pope, a world-renowned psychiatrist from Harvard University to visit and collaborate. To everyone's surprise, he accepted.

 

That collaboration led to the publication of the founder's first academic paper in 2009: a ground breaking trial of a diagnostic tool for assessing steroid dependence. One of the first of its kind, which led to one of the first dedicated Steroid and IPED clinics in the country. 

 

It was the beginning of a mission to bridge the gap between underground communities, lived experience, and high-level health and care insight.

 

Since then, Bloodwork's has grown into a collective of passionate healthcare professionals dedicated to harm reduction, health equity, and serving the people most often overlooked by traditional systems.