As I rested on a chair just inside shop I’d been passing when my legs wouldn’t hold me up any more, a man walked into the shop, clocked my pair of tall OT-supplied walking sticks, and asked me what I’d done to myself. I told him I had multiple sclerosis. His expression changed to one of sympathy and interest, as he asked ‘Why have you done MS?’.

Slightly taken aback by the unusual verb he used (done, not got), I started explaining all about what multiple sclerosis is, about the body attacking the myelin sheath, causing nerve messages to be confused or blocked, resulting in numbness, incoordination and the raft of other symptoms that meant I struggled to walk, even with two sticks, and was therefore sitting on a chair just inside the shop, unable to walk any further.

‘No, no’ he interrupted, ‘why have you done MS?’

I realised he meant why had my system developed the illness at all, and why MS (instead of, for example, migraine, IBS, arthritis or eczema).

Like a thunderbolt, I realised I didn’t have a clue, despite all the reading I’d done since being diagnosed. I also realised that it was a very good question indeed. Why had I become so ill?

The shop I’d paused to rest in was Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy in Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, and the man was pharmacist and owner John Morgan. He doesn’t remember our conversation, 25 years ago now, but I do. It changed my life, and it’s probably a large part of why I’m a homeopath, so he has my enduring thanks.

I’ve been answering this question for myself ever since, and now I understand the importance of it, and the many ways in which I unknowingly made myself ill and unhappy until, at age 28, John Morgan made me stop and really think about it.

I’d got used to drinking coffee and Diet Coke instead of water.

I’d long being a ‘bad’ vegetarian, relying heavily on carbs and dairy over healthful lean protein, nuts, seeds and good fats.

I’d taken repeated courses of antibiotics for things like cystitis, a longstanding tummy bug picked up in Nepal, tonsillitis, coughs, colds and flu, without ever repopulating my gut with good bacteria, getting one ailment after another which I pestered my GP to fix with medications.

Family members had struggled with their health - maybe I’d inherited some genetic susceptibilities?

I’d lived with a deeply stressful and toxic family situation since childhood, had suffered repeated bereavements since losing a parent as a toddler, and had been homesick and bullied at boarding school.

I’d had a smallpox jab that had gone septic and taken ages to heal, and hormone problems after the contraceptive pill.

A conscientious and hard-working lawyer and law lecturer, in my early 20s I’d been promoted quickly, and had allowed far too much work and responsibility to be piled on by my boss.

I’d had horse-riding accidents, car crashes, shocks and traumas, and a series of unhappy love relationships.

Could any of these things be related?

Over two decades later, I’m now an experienced, award-winning online homeopath, with clients from around the world, who seek me out for online consultations and remedy recommendations. I help my clients look at possible underlying energetic causes of their ill health, stress or unhappiness. Together we try to work out what could possibly have gone so wrong for their self-healing and rebalancing system for it have created symptoms in a misguided effort to keep them safe. With my help, my clients unpack their cases, just as I did my own, as we work to help them transform their own health, happiness and wellbeing with the help of natural, non-toxic and safe homeopathic remedies, homeobotanical blends and flower essences.

If you’d like to start your journey towards better understanding of your wellbeing, get in touch. Maybe we can find you a remedy?