Whilst I was going through the radiotherapy part of my treatment, I had a visit from my Uncle Gary and my cousins, Matt and Ozz. I was still bed bound at this point and was gutted that I couldn’t go downstairs to see them. My cousins came and poked their head round the door to say hello, but Gary wanted to spend some more time with me to try out some hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy is something that Gary had been doing for years. If you don’t know what it is, I copied an explanation from this website “The practice of promoting healing or positive development in any way is known as hypnotherapy.  As such, hypnotherapy is a kind of psychotherapy.  Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and suppressed emotions to be overcome. As the body is released from conscious control during the relaxed trance-like state of hypnosis, breathing becomes slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate falls.  Similar changes along nervous pathways and hormonal channels enable the sensation of pain to become less acute, and the awareness of unpleasant symptoms, such as nausea or indigestion, to be alleviated.”

When I was younger, me and my family visited my Uncle and cousins in Malvern. On one day my parents and Gary took me, my brother and cousins to the local park. One of my cousins brought his skateboard along with him and we were playing with it until I slipped off it and fell on my back. My back really started to hurt so we made our way back to my Uncle’s flat and he suggested some Reiki. He asked me to lay on the floor and whilst he set to work on my back, I got the giggles. I think either my brother or my cousins were making me laugh, probably taking the mick, but I was laughing so much that my Gary gave up on me saying that it wouldn’t work unless I took it seriously.

Unbeknown to me then, the next time Gary would mention trying something like this on me would be when I was going through cancer. He came upstairs with Mum who said she would sit with us whilst it was happening. At first, I was apprehensive about it all, thinking about what had happened the last time. Gary told me to lie still and listen to his voice. I soon drifted off and well I can’t tell you what was being said to me cos I was asleep!

The next thing I knew, I was waking up to Gary’s voice. My Mum told me that I suddenly sat bolt upright and turned to look straight at her. I was crying, but I also had a huge grin across my face. My Mum later told me that she recognised that grin as her Grandpa’s grin. She felt his presence as if he was looking over us that day. She’s also mentioned that she felt his presence throughout my treatment, reassuring her that everything was going to be okay. Whether the Hypnotherapy did anything to help me through cancer I don’t know, but it certainly didn’t do any harm.

My Uncle Gary is a very clever man as well as Hypnotherapy and Reiki, he does other things such as dowsing and has told me numerous stories of how he has been able to find lost things for people without even entering the buildings that they were in. He’s definitely got a sixth sense!