A breath of fresh air for MS sufferers

8:13pm Monday 28th January 2008

A CHARITY which helps multiple sclerosis sufferers is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Swindon Therapy Centre for Multiple Sclerosis has hit the headlines over the years for its once-controversial use of a hyberbaric oxygen chamber.

Now the same technique is used by top football stars like Wayne Rooney to boost their performance.

When the centre first opened, however, a furious row about the treatment spilled over into the Advertiser's letter pages.

Trustee, David Hughes, 63, of Purton, is a founder member of the centre.

He said: "I've been chairman three times, as well as being secretary and now I'm a trustee, so I'm quite an old hand around here."

David, who was diagnosed with MS in 1979, passionately believes in the centre's use of high dosage oxygen therapy and says that he is literally walking proof that it works.

"When I had my first treatment I was permanently on a walking stick," he said.

"At the end of my first session in the chamber I walked out and forgot my stick - it had that immediate an impact.

"I stopped using the chamber for nine months and at the end of it I was walking with two sticks.

"I'm convinced this has saved me from a wheelchair for more than 20 years."

The therapy group was originally formed as the Swindon branch of Action And Research For Multiple Sclerosis.

It became an independent charity in 1993, after the parent national charity went into receivership.

The first decompression chamber the group used had to be stored in a portable building at Fernham, in Oxfordshire.

The present chamber, a purpose- built six-seater, was bought in 1986.

The group has been based at BSS House on Cheney Manor Industrial Estate since 1989, although a campaign is under way for new premises and a new chamber able to seat 12 members.

David believes that the centre is important, not just for the treatment it offers but also as a social network for sufferers.

He said: "When I was first diagnosed I felt terribly alone and it was difficult to find information.

"People come here not just for treatment but to talk to others and feel part of a community.

"The philosophy of early MS groups was very much you don't come here to get information, you come here to forget you've got MS.

"That's certainly not our approach."

To find out information about the centre call 01793 481700.

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