15 years ago Judith Wright came to talk to us about CHARMS, a charity set up to offer hyperbaric oxygen treatment and complementary therapies to people with MS.
Judith still acts as a trustee and today her son, Dr Benjamin Newman-Wright, returned to give us an update. Ben is the chief executive officer of the charity.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (“HBT”) forces oxygen into the system under pressure and has been found to benefit people with cancer, cerebral palsy, dementia and stroke, urological diseases as well as the original neurological disorders like MS, Parkinson’s and ME. HBT also helps wounds and burns heal quicker and with less scarring.
Ben explained that HBT helps to prevent metastasis in cancer patients and in some instances will reduce a tumour from stage 4 to stage 3 which enables chemotherapy and radiotherapy to be effective.
CHARMS has two HBT treatment compartments. One has space for eight people at a time and the other has space for three. It is one of the few centres which can help children as young as six months.