Nicki Bellinger, a consultant nurse in critical care at the Orthopaedic Hospital, has been selected to be part of the emergency planning team organising the sailing events.

It was her work with patients suffering from severe spinal injuries that made her the number one candidate for the job: "I was asked to join the team by the sailing project manager, Chris Chambers, who I used to work alongside when we were both nursing officers in the army," she said, "Chris knew about my work here at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and the fantastic facilities we have such as the Pennill Pool.

"Obviously this hospital has a great deal of expertise in spinal injuries and we shall be drawing on this when carrying out our research and working out best techniques for resuscitating people at sea, stabilising suspected spinal injuries and the safe evacuation of injured competitors. We will also be responsible for fully kitting out a 50ft emergency rescue boat which will be used at both the Games!"

Nicki says she will be looking closely at the immobilisation of people injured at sea: "Currently there is no recognised technique to rescue someone who may have a spinal injury. Pulling someone out of the water without immobilising them first can create further damage so we will be looking into ways of doing this and the sort of kit we would need to enable us to do this."

All the sailing events for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place from Weymouth and Portland Harbour off the Dorset coast, which provides some of the best natural sailing waters in the UK, but while Nicki is a keen fan, she says she will be keeping her feet firmly on dry land during the Games: "I love watching sailing and windsurfing but I get terribly sea sick, so I will be a spectator only at the big event!"