Your Chief Health Officer

My journey from an office in the Corporate world to my clinic at home via the wilds of Jamaica...

It's so easy to take your health for granted...

In the 1990s I was riding a wave of health and happiness, newly graduated, widely traveled and successfully doing what I had always been told to do: get a good education, get a good job, get a good husband, have children.

Everything went to plan until my first pregnancy. In 2001 I went from being a lively, energetic and healthy adventurer to being house-bound from week 14 thanks to uncontrollable nausea and vomiting after EVERY meal for 9 months coupled with passing out every time I walked out of the front door. I remember being bundled into the back of a military police car because they found me lying in the gutter outside a 'secure military establishment' near my home. I remember the view from the floor of several department stores and the anxious faces of strangers who had clearly never studied first aid, let alone what to do with a heavily pregnant woman blocking the shopping aisles!

You would think with so much drama that alarm bells would be ringing in the hospital corridors, or at least in my GP surgery, but no. 'You're just pregnant. The baby is fine" was the 9-month long mantra.

Exhausted, dehydrated and with the anxiety that only a first time Mum can understand, I begged the hospital to admit me an put me on a drip during the final week of pregnancy, but I was told that it was important to have an 'active labour' to get the baby into position. As it happens, I still believe in that principle, but none of us should ever ignore a mothers' intuition.

On the day of my 40 week appointment with the consultant I asked for a scan because 'something' had happened at 3am and I thought I was going into labour but then it stopped. She was reluctant because it was 'normal' and she said I'd probably give birth over the weekend. It was Friday. This time, though, I was insistent about having a scan. She reluctantly got a mobile scanner and told me "yes, as I thought, the baby is 4/5 engaged, head down... but hang on.... there's no heartbeat".

My son’s funeral was on Christmas Eve 2001. It transpired that I had been suffering from gestational diabetes that had not been picked up on the GTT scan at 27 weeks. (For those who may not know, the glucose tolerance test, GTT, is specifically aimed at spotting that). All the warning signs had been there, a large baby, excessive amniotic fluid, nausea, fatigue...

I felt utterly let down by conventional medicine. My baby died because staff were too busy and overworked to listen to me and spot the warning signs.

Coming back from any tragedy in life requires a lot of soul-searching, but it did not take me long to find my true calling and as for many people, tragedy led to transformation.

I went back to university, this time to study Traditional Chinese Medicine which appealed to me because of the way diagnosis is made not just with symptoms but looking at your mind, body, spiritual health and environment. I traveled to the rain-forest in Malaysia then over the years I deepened my studies of indigenous healing when I went places like Jamaica to learn from the Rastafarians, to the Mojave desert where I spent time with a 100-year-old Paiute Indian learning about their survival in the desert (especially when their water courses were diverted to 'feed' Los Angeles).

I soon learned that contrary to what most people think, health problems do not just appear out of the blue!

Once I made that commitment to change direction, my life took on a whole new sense of purpose that I could never have foreseen. My passion for natural medicines and particularly herbal remedies became the focus of my professional and personal life. What I had not anticipated, however, was that simultaneously I was tracing my family tree and trying to track down my father who I had never known. That is a whole different story but suffice to say that I found him and discovered that not only is my dad Jamaican (which came as something of a surprize given the amount I spend on fake tan!) but that my great-grandmother was a renowned herbalist who lived to be 114 year old!

It turned out that healing was in my blood and herbs were in my roots, but it took a tragedy to bring it all to light.

Just under 20 years later I have my clients to thank for the wealth of experience, insight and sense of purpose I have gained.

Advances in science have led me to shift my focus over the years from Chinese medicine to functional medicine which allows me the luxury of treating people with natural healing solutions - food, exercise, meditation, herbs, acupuncture etc - backed by state-of-the-art laboratory testing and scientific breakthroughs in nutrigenomics that empowers people to no longer be a victim to the genes they inherit.

I have found a healthy balance between being a business owner and staying fit and healthy enough to reap the rewards with my hobbies of underwater photography, sailing and dancing. I have been blessed with two wonderful children and am now married to the man of my dreams (second time lucky!).

I believe that we as business leaders are the future of the post-pandemic economic recovery but we can only do that if we stay physically and mentally healthy using preventative medicine wherever possible.

In my opinion, functional medicine to be the future of healthcare and look forward to the next 20 years and beyond and I feel excited, humbled and privileged to think of the interesting clients I will work with along the way.

As Seen On...

An Annual Health Check is all it takes

When I ran some of the basic functional medicine labs on myself (even though I had excellent health), I got them back and found out that my body was not eliminating oestrogen properly. Had I not run this test, the first I would have found out about it would likely be a diagnosis of breast cancer or ovarian cancer, but thanks to the team at the lab who I now work with, some very simple dietary changes were all I needed to help my body adjust to the perimenopausal phase of my life.

Thank goodness that this time I did not need a wake-up call to keep my life on track! So now... I am on a mission to help other business owners like me get and stay healthy so you can fulfill your potential in your business and your personal life without being held back by the threat of long term health problems.

Book Annual Health Check here

Transformation Packages

If you wnt a results-based solution, then maybe our Concierge Packages would be an ideal one-stop-shop

Covid-19 Resistance, Resilience & Recovery Plan

This is a programme where we focus on strengthening your immune system and reducing inflammation. It is ideal for those who are at high risk of contracting Covid-19, those recovering from it or suffering from 'long Covid' and also for those at risk of serious complications if they do contract it.

Type II Diabetes Reversal

Whether you have been diagnosed with Type II diabetes or have been told that you are pre-diabetic or have 'insulin resistance', this programme will help to reverse that downward spiral and get your health and your weight back on track again.

Digestive Health

Stress, eating at your desk, fast food will all have an adverse effect on your digestive system that leads to acid reflux, indigestion, dysbiosis, malabsorbtion and even malnutrition. The tests in this package help us to find out whether you are getting the right nutrients and whether you are able to absorb them. We have a range of diet plans to meet your needs as well as tests for gut function, food intolerance and nutrient levels in your body.