ALTERNATIVES (an independent view of the CHARMS centre)
by Samuel Collins

In this climate of the declining National Health Service, with ridiculous waiting times and postcode prescriptions, more and more people are turning to 'alternative' therapies. The very name suggests a lack of scientific basis, and conjures up images of con-men and ageing hippies. In the last year, however, I have come to understand the wide definition of the word ‘alternative’.

CHARMS is a charity which runs out of a centre in Chelmsford, and offers a variety of effective therapies. Among them are massage, reflexology and shiatsu, as well as a drop-in social forum, but it was a treatment called Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy that the centre was founded on almost twenty years ago.

Charity Action for the Relief of Multiple Sclerosis was registered with the Charity Commission in 1983 in order to provide HBO treatment for MS sufferers. HBO is a well established and well documented treatment for MS, burns and neurological disorders, and Charms welcomes anyone who believes that HBO can help them. Current users of the HBO tanks include sufferers of ME, Stroke, and Cerebral Palsy, as well as those with MS.

Briefly, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy involves spending an hour or so sitting in a large tank, which is pressurized with normal air, whilst you breathe pure oxygen through a mask. The high pressure environment forces the oxygen into the tissues of the body that don’t otherwise get it, whilst increasing circulation, and the process encourages the body to heal itself.

HBO Has been used in Britain and America for over twenty years, and its applications range from beauty treatment to serious burns and pre-op. It can halt the progression of MS and reverse the effects of ME. in a quite miraculous way, but the most remarkable thing is - nobody’s ever heard of it!

People need to know that CHARMS is out there, ready to help them. These days it’s hard to believe that anyone or anything can help, and yet this small local charity really does change people’s lives. I suffered from ME. for almost seven years before I heard about CHARMS, and I was in the middle of a major relapse, sleeping twenty hours a day, when I began to use the tank twice a week. Just a few months later I am fit and active, having completed the full time College course I had started, and gone on to work in the physically demanding arena of acting. When there is no established treatment for ME. this to me, is a miracle, and I feel that everyone who could be helped by HBO should know about CHARMS.

The work at CHARMS is never-ending, and raising the public awareness is just one task that needs to be undertaken. CHARMS, like all charities, survives on good-will, donations, volunteers time. If you think that CHARMS can help you, or that you can help CHARMS, please ring Judith or Arthur Wright on 01245 461212.


Sam is a 21 year old actor, who suffered from ME. from the ages of 13-20. In fact he still has it, but it doesn't really get in the way now.