My name is Dare Timilehin Raphael and I am a physiotherapist and a part-time handbag designer.

My interest in physiotherapy stemmed from watching football as a kid and as a teenager. I would always watch intently whenever the medic team had to come pick up an injured player on the field, and always wondered about the kind and level of treatment used on the players to restore them back to shape. I’ve always known I was going to go down the medical path but I knew being a doctor was out of the question. This resulted in me studying physiotherapy in Unilag.

I’ve been a physiotherapist for 4 years now and from my experience, it seems most people still don’t know what exactly we do, even doctors – well some of them – are oblivious as to what we do. During my NYSC service at a military hospital, after relating with several of the doctors on ground, the general consensus was that all we do is to shift dislocated bones. I received so many questions from Doctors who wondered what physiologists do for a living which is quite sad. Most are clueless when it comes to physiotherapy and think of us as inferior health service providers while they are the Kings and Queens of medicine.

This job has made me appreciate every part of my body. As I continued to work, the more amazed and awed I was by how wonderfully made our bodies are. Seeing patients in pain makes me realise how we often take even the smallest part of our body for granted. For example, I once had to help a 67 year old patient with stiff knees with her healing process. It was probably one of the most difficult times of my professional career as I often had to watch her cry as she tried to make strides with her recover. Regardless, the mere fact that I’m helping several people heal both physically, emotionally and mentally is the reason why I love what I do and keep doing it. It’s a profession where I’m constantly learning new things and helping people, as well as bring movement and smiles back to the lives of the patients. My dream is for increased recognition on the importance of my profession and I believe in the next few years, this dream will come to pass because now more than ever, managing pain and rehabilitating those in recovery is increasingly important

I dabbled into fashion designing sometime last year as a means to augment my income at the time and one thing that living in Lagos has taught me is that one should never rely on just one stream of income, but rather to multitask.

I went with a friend to the market to buy African made souvenirs for her trip to Europe and I came across very vibrant bags made out of aso oke and I immediately fell in love with them. So I bought a couple of them and started selling them to immediate family and friends. Further down the line, I started designing the bags and selecting fabrics I thought would look best for each design.  I also joined Instagram to further create an online presence for my merchandise and so far the response has been positive. My big dream is to expand to shoes, dresses, hats and own my own store.