Meet Ella Lovibond: Our Inspiring New Brand Ambassador

We're thrilled to introduce our new brand ambassador, Ella Lovibond! Ella is a semi-professional rugby player for Bristol Bears Women’s and previously played for the University of Bristol’s Women’s Rugby Club.

Her journey over the past year has been inspiring, experiencing two concussions that sidelined her from sports and disrupted her academic life. The challenges she faced were immense, impacting her ability to prepare for exams and meet demanding university deadlines.

Reflecting on her struggles, Ella shared, “I was told to rest and not look at screens, but I had exams starting in two weeks.” Her words underscore the difficult balance between recovery and academic obligations—a struggle familiar to many student-athletes. 

Ella's journey also highlighted a critical issue: the lack of education and knowledge about concussion recovery protocols. She talks of her experience ‘learning the hard way’, forced to navigate the complexities of concussion management with little prior understanding. 

Through our conversations with Ella, we delved into the gender differences in concussion outcomes. She revealed that sensitivity to light was a major symptom for her, a finding consistent with our research that shows women often experience this symptom more frequently than men. To manage this, Ella now uses blue light glasses when working on screens. 

Inspired by Ella and other student-athletes' experiences, we have developed a comprehensive and clear resource that addresses both return-to-learn and return-to-play challenges and student-specific challenges. Our protocol is designed to equip athletes with the knowledge they need to recover effectively from concussions, thereby minimising the risk of second-impact syndrome—a serious condition that can occur if an athlete returns to play too soon and experiences another concussion before fully recovering from the prior. 

In addition to her role as a rugby player, Ella is now serving as the SU Sports and Development Officer at the University of Bristol. In this capacity, she is passionate about raising awareness of holistic concussion recovery and gender-specific differences, both at the university and nationwide. Her extensive sporting network will be invaluable in promoting our services and spreading crucial information. 

We've already taken significant steps towards this goal. Recently, we conducted a training session for the Club Captains at the University of Bristol through their new Trailblazers program, and have also led training for the head coaches, aligning them on our protocol. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with UoB’s Sports Development commenting;

“The concussion toolkit training delivered by the team was excellent, it has equipped our club captains with the tools and knowledge needed to better support and identify concussion related injuries earlier and what the best course of action to take is. It is an incredibly important topic and the work the team have done to build this training toolkit is exemplary. We look forward to getting you back again next year!” 

To learn more about our work and the impact we've had already, check out the University of Bristol case study on our website. We are excited to welcome Ella to the team and look forward to working with her on our mission to make concussion research and support more inclusive and digestible. 

Ella commented “I'm really excited to be an ambassador for such a great enterprise that aligns with my core values as both a rugby player and a representative for university sport. I understand the struggles that concussion can cause for students on a personal level, and am keen to spread as much awareness as possible to help overcome these.”