Ben’s Story

Getting an award from Prince Charles was the unusual means by which Ben and his family found their way to Pat Haggie, a homeopath working in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Ben was one of the children winning the Children of Courage award organised by Women's Own. At 6 weeks old Ben was diagnosed with eczema, which covered his skin from top to toe and led to six years of pain, itching and sleepless nights. At 11 months hydrocephalus was diagnosed - a condition that prevents fluid draining away in the brain, causing pressure to build up and leading to swelling, crippling headaches and surgery.

Ben was miserable, unable to concentrate and angry, but also determined, desperately wanting to live a normal life. Last year, Prince Charles presented him with the Children of Courage at Westminster Abbey.

The prince is a long-standing and active supporter of alternative and complementary medicine. His vision is that integrated healthcare (conventional and complementary health care working together for the benefit of the patient) would become available in GP surgeries and hospitals around the country. It is for this aim that he created the Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Health (POWFIH). The Prince was very moved by the daily struggle that Ben endured and ensured that he was put in touch with a homeopath.

Pat Haggie works near Ben in one of the few projects in the UK that provides alternative and complementary therapies within the NHS. Pat is a founder member of this project and has had contact with Prince Charles before when they won an award from POWFIH in 2002.

Ben has now had 6 sessions with Pat and the results of the treatment have been amazing, so much so that Ben and his Mum have been featured in stories in Women's Own, the Daily Mail and on GMTV.

Pat says "the first time I saw Ben he was screaming and shouting and being completely unruly" but she also felt that there was a good chance of a positive reaction to remedies as "he has a lot of energy which I hope to harness to make him better". At the initial consultation Pat prescribed Sulphur and Calcarea Carbonica and within two weeks there were signs of change. Normally Ben would have 9 or 10 episodes of head bulging over two weeks but in this first period there was only one. He was scratching less during the night so his sleeping was better and he was much more cheerful and cooperative during the day. At the next consultation Pat added Thymus to the prescription, which can help to strengthen the immune system.

Ben's eczema began clearing from the head down, which is how homeopaths like it - this is considered to be a sign of the Law of Cure in operation - this is a belief that when real healing takes place improvements start at the top and proceed down the body, deeper conditions improve first followed by the more superficial ones, and mental and emotional problems begin to clear before the physical ones.

Because of the time that Ben's complaints developed Pat felt that many of Ben's symptoms could be as a result of defective calcium assimilation, so another remedy she prescribed was Lac Humanum produced from breast milk.

Six weeks later at their fourth appointment Ben's Mum said that she thought that Ben's eczema was 50% better, much of the bleeding and oozing had stopped and he was sleeping well. The head bulging is much less frequent and the nausea and dizzy spells that accompanied the headaches have stopped. Pat prescribed Calcarea Carbonica and a remedy called Tuberculinum and Ben continues to improve.

"When I first saw Ben he was unhappy and merely existing" Pat said. "Now he is living life to the full as a normal 6 year old". Prince Charles who was asked to be kept informed said, "I am enormously heartened, and considerably moved by the evidence of progress."