‘Homeopathy helped me beat cancer’ (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

‘Homeopathy helped me beat cancer’

7:00am Saturday 13th February 2010 in News

‘Life saved’: Gemma Hoefkens, who is campaigning for homeopathy to be used more widely in the NHS.

A WOMAN who claims alternative medicine saved her life is campaigning for it to be “taken more seriously” by the Government.

Gemma Hoefkens, 40, of Bewdley, says homeopathy helped her recover from inoperable brain tumours.

A petition signed by more than 25,000 people is being handed into the Houses of Parliament on February 24, calling for homeopathy to be used more by the NHS.

Ms Hoefkens, who runs a homeopathy practice in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, said: “The majority of patients with cancer and other chronic diseases suffer needlessly and many die at an early age. Having got a second chance at life, I feel duty bound, even passionate, to let others know that there are other choices.”

Ms Hoefkens is convinced homeopathy helped her beat cancer but she explained doctors at the time said her recovery was down to “a delayed reaction to chemotherapy”.

Homeopathy uses diluted solutions which, it is claimed, help the body heal itself by building up its own resistance to disease.

Critics argue the treatments are unproven and say NHS money could be better spent elsewhere.

Having received chemotherapy and radiotherapy in 1996, Ms Hoefkens was being looked after by her parents in Bewdley. “The consultant told me the treatment was making me worse and there was nothing more he or the hospital could do for me,” she went on.

Despite being “a genuine sceptic” of alternative treatments, Ms Hoefkens said she started taking tablets, described as “blood liquescience”, to “aid blood function”.

She added a programme of relaxation, meditation and detox helped her “feel like a human being again” and led to her slowly getting better.

Ms Hoefkens set up her homeopathy business when she recovered from her illness and said she saw every day as “a blessing”.