"You’ll be right now son"
These words were spoken by Tom countless times over his life of service to others
He may have been their last hope in therapy where all else had been unsuccessful or he may have been their last hope first responder on a sports oval to an unexpected sporting injury To so many , these were the words of assurance that he was able to help them . Tom didn’t talk much but he had one constant when asked if he had found the cause of their pain “Pinched nerve “ was his standard reply . So long as Tom found something , his patients were happy with that .
Such was the faith that his patients had in Tom’s treatment “ You’ll be right now “ was all they wanted to hear
We will touch on little known facts about Tom and his work . Of great importance to Tom was his monthly clinic for “ patients with special needs “ This was treatment that was different to his normal work
There is much that has been forgotten or ignored in the history of Toms work - either from lack of interest , lack of knowledge or lack of understanding but history can lead the way for the the future development and progress of Bowen Therapy .
Toms understanding of the intricate web of connections in the human body has been and will be the trigger to further understanding of this work
None of Toms successes ever happened by chance - there were no miracles - He expected the results he got . While he didn’t have 100% success he was disappointed that there were some he couldn’t help.
About Romney Smeeton
I am a registered Chiropractor still in full time practice In Geelong Australia.
I graduated from the Chiropractic College of Australasia in 1976 spending my final year working with both Keith Davis and Kevin Neave , both of them members of Toms Special Group of observers known as “Toms Boys “ . I began observing Tom in 1977 until his death in October 1982.
Over my career , I have been the treating practitioner in well over 200,000 treatments and with Kevin Ryan , another one of “Toms Boys “ we continued Toms monthly clinic for patients with Special Needs - for children and adults , treating conditions like paraplegia, quadriplegia, Spina bifida, cerebral palsy etc for another 12 years after Toms death and today we still treat some of those patients.
I’m still working full time in my practice in Geelong, not far from where Tom worked from his clinic, and am the last of “Tom’s Boys” still in full time practice.
Toms big concern before he died was who was going to look after his patients - we made the commitment that we would be there to do that and we still see many of Toms old patients even today.