Feet First Podiatry opened its doors last month in the Brown Brangman Building at the corner of Reid Street and King Street.

It is a dream Taitu Kunze has worked towards since the age of 12, when she laid out her ambition as part of a class assignment.

She had been inspired by the chiropodist treating her father’s callouses. A later passion for diagnosis, treatment and management led her to pursue further studies and become a podiatrist.

As a young student, however, her thoughts centred on helping others.

“My ambition is to become a chiropodist. I would be my own boss and have my own company. It would be called Taitu’s Foot Clinic and House Calls,” she wrote then.

“I want to be a chiropodist because you use your feet in all things. If people have something wrong with their feet I would tell them what would have to be done and how they could take care of them.”

Dr Kunze attended Purvis Primary School and The Berkeley Institute. For a while, she flirted with becoming a dentist, but the anatomy and physiology classes she took at the Bermuda College convinced her podiatry was a better fit.

She received her bachelor’s degree in podiatric medical studies from the University of Wales in 2006 and a master of science degree specialising in podiatry with diabetes, in 2014.

Dr Kunze spent nine years working in Britain, serving as lead podiatrist for Dr Scholl’s, the famed footwear and orthopaedic footcare brand, and senior podiatrist for the South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

The next year, she returned to Bermuda to work in private practice and is now chair of the Board of Podiatrists (Bermuda Allied Health Council) and the only Bermudian woman in the field.

“Last year, I decided it was time for me to go on my own, so we opened up at the beginning of February, and it’s been going really well,” she said.

“It would be great if there were more Bermudians getting into health, in general, because there’s a lot of specialities that aren’t being tapped into by the local population and people are having to bring in guest workers for those jobs. So that’s definitely something that I would encourage.”

When it comes to podiatry, there are many people in need of the specialised knowledge that professionals can provide, Dr Kunze added.

“We have a lot of patients with chronic conditions affecting their feet in Bermuda, especially diabetes because we have a really high prevalence of diabetes here — about 13 per cent.”

Diabetics often suffer from ischemia — a lack of oxygenated blood to the feet — and neuropathy, which results in reduced sensation. Dr Kunze regularly treats patients with these conditions, as well as cardiovascular issues, circulation problems, rheumatoid arthritis and sports injuries.

Among adults, Achilles tendinitis and plantar fasciitis are also common ailments.

“We can treat a wide variety of patients with foot or ankle problems,” said Dr Kunze, one of 12 registered podiatrists on the island. “If there’s something that we cannot deal with ourselves, we refer to other allied health professionals and physicians.

“When you look at other islands, places like Trinidad and Barbados, they have over a million people, but they only have two or three registered podiatrists. We have a fair amount of podiatrists for our population.”

Feet First Podiatry offers preventive care as well as treatment. While chronic conditions require regular visits, those with healthy feet should schedule check-ups once or twice a year, as it is “easier to prevent a problem than to treat [it]”.

Children are often referred by their GP for conditions such as ingrown toenails and Sever’s disease — an inflammation near the heel bone. Many young swimmers are also treated for warts, as the virus thrives in the warm, moist environment of pool tiles.

“Ingrown toenails are really common with children due to ill-fitting footwear and high levels of activity,” Dr Kunze said. “This can cause nail trauma.”

Married, with two children now in their early teens, her progress towards entrepreneurship was “a little bit slower” than she had first imagined when she was 12, but she is proud to now serve as a role model for them.

She said: “I've been telling them to start thinking now about what they want to do [as a career]. That it’s really important for them to make those goals and stick with them although, obviously, they can pivot. It’s great to make goals early and to strive for that.”

It is a conversation she is happy to have with “anyone who’s interested”, as she is grateful to have benefited from “a really good support system”, including her husband, Cain Kunze, and the late Donna Hendrickson, who was also a podiatrist.

“She really encouraged me to take on the chairman role of the podiatry board,” Dr Kunze said. “She was only doing mobile visits, and right now, there’s a huge need for that on the island. And so I've allocated time during the week to provide mobile visits for people in the community who need podiatry. Mobile includes [the] hospital, rest homes and private homes.”

• Feet First Podiatry is located at 100 Reid Street, on the third floor of the Brown Brangman Building. For more information, visit www.feetfirstbda.com, e-mail info@feetfirstbda.com or call 261-3338