From Wishaw to the Harbour: How One Worker Found Support for Years of Unaddressed Pain

James has been travelling from Wishaw to work at a busy west-coast harbour for nearly fifteen years. It is a journey he makes three or four times a week depending on the season, leaving before five in the morning and returning home tired and, increasingly, in pain. For years, he assumed that chronic aching after shifts was simply the price of physical work. His knees ached after cold wet days on the quayside. His lower back stiffened by Thursday of any heavy week. He took ibuprofen when things got bad and kept going, as most people he worked alongside did.

What James did not know was that there were resources available to help him understand whether what he was experiencing was preventable, manageable, or something he should be taking more seriously. He had not had a formal occupational health assessment and was not sure he was entitled to one. Like many of the workers we meet through our harbour sessions, he had no clear picture of what support existed or whether any of it applied to someone in his situation.

James first heard about Vibrant Health Advocates - Onyx when a colleague mentioned we had been at a nearby harbour a few weeks earlier running an information morning. He looked us up online and sent a short message asking whether we could tell him anything about knee pain in port workers. Within a few days he had spoken to one of our trained volunteers and attended a session at a harbour accessible from his regular worksite.

What changed was not dramatic in the way a medical intervention might be, but it was significant. James learned that the knee pain he had been experiencing showed a pattern consistent with repetitive impact and cold exposure — both common in port work — and that his GP could refer him for a physiotherapy assessment if he described his working conditions clearly. He had assumed GPs only took work-related complaints seriously after an acute injury. He had not known he could simply walk in and explain what his job involved.

Following a GP visit, James was referred for physiotherapy. He also changed how he manages rest days, taking advice from the session about protecting recovery time and staying warm and dry during breaks far more seriously than before. He says the conversation at the session also helped him understand that he had the right to raise health concerns with his employer without it being seen as a complaint.

Stories like James's are exactly why Vibrant Health Advocates - Onyx exists. Wishaw's fishing and port-working community is made up of hardworking people who routinely put their health last, not out of carelessness, but because they have never had clear information about what options are available to them. Occupational health should not be a privilege available only to people who work for large employers with dedicated HR departments.

If you travel from Wishaw or the surrounding Lanarkshire area to work at a harbour or on a fishing vessel, please get in touch. You do not need to be in crisis to reach out — coming to one of our sessions when things are still manageable is far better than waiting until they are not.