My Story

I’ve always been a very driven person and spent many years working as a director of an investment bank before moving on to focus upon starting a family. My husband and I were blessed with twins and I enjoyed a relatively balanced life, working in finance and business part time so I could spend time bringing up my children and playing golf – a hobby that I had become passionate about. 

I never had any plans to start a new career until I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). This started me down a path where I researched natural ways to heal myself and opened up a whole new world.

After feeling out of sorts for a few months, my symptoms of overall aching became noticeably worse when I started waking up with hands which were fixed in a clawed position and very painful. Eventually I saw a rheumatologist and was shocked to be diagnosed with RA. He said the only way I’d avoid ending up being in a wheelchair was if I took drugs for the rest of my life.  I wanted to understand more about the condition, and instinctively I questioned whether there was a way that I could actually make myself better rather than suppress my immune system with drugs.

At the time I was fearful that if I didn’t take the drugs I could end up disabled as the rheumatologist had indicated.  For me, my deciding factor was which route would give me the best chance of being able to continue to grip a golf club. Everyone needs something that inspires them to keep going and make it all worthwhile. My husband and I shared this wonderful hobby and we had plans to enjoy a golfing retirement together.

That same day, determined to find more answers, I stayed up all night researching RA and various treatments. After coming across two different RA support groups on Facebook, (one using traditional medication and the other using natural and nutritional strategies) I was struck by how different the people’s results were. The ones taking medication were still suffering and were posting photos of very bad symptoms. It was horrifying to see visuals of swollen joints even on medications – this did not seem like a winning strategy to me. Strikingly, the ones in the ‘healing naturally’ group seemed to be getting much better results. Their attitude was also much more positive and empowered. It was after seeing this that I knew I wanted to give it my all, trying to heal naturally, before seeing another rheumatologist for a second opinion.

Following my research, I drastically changed my diet and initially followed a juicing regimen before becoming plant based, eating fruits and vegetables for the next few weeks. The diet was difficult, but the results were dramatic and my hands started to unfurl within the first week, which was really promising. Over time I introduced some more foods and I continued to move forward with improvements.

As well as the change of diet, I threw everything at my new mission – genuinely believing that I could get myself better. I started to meditate, visualise,  practice yoga, do breathing exercises, take a multitude of supplements – in fact anything that I could find beneficial evidence of.

At my next rheumatologist visit I explained that my hand symptoms had completely gone and overall I felt about 80% better in three short weeks. The doctor seemed unimpressed and said I should still take the drugs, only recommending Omega 3 oil when I pressed him for advice about natural supplements that may help. I lost respect for him this point and was determined to prove him wrong!

My experience mirrors a lot of others on this journey. We have a certain expectation that doctors know everything, and that there is always a pill that can make us better. 

However, once I started to read research papers, I realised that there is a wealth of other information out there created by brilliant scientists that is just not being picked up or used by doctors. This doesn’t seem right as one assumes the system is designed to get as much healing to as many people as possible. While I have a lot of respect for the medical profession, I have learned that doctors are not always equipped to offer the best healing solutions for chronic conditions.    In the case of my RA, the drugs on offer could only suppress my immune system and not reverse the causes of my condition.

What started as a journey to help myself soon grew into a way of helping others. After hearing about the success that I had with my own health, friends and family started to send people to me. I felt that I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge and so I trained and qualified in Nutritional Therapy as well as Functional Medicine so that I would be able to help others. 

Although I wouldn’t wish autoimmunity on anyone, finding ways to effectively reverse my own symptoms naturally has been a huge gift and one that I am now thrilled to pass on to other people. 

If you’d like to have a free chat about how I may be able to help you, please click below to get in touch so that we can book in a call.