I was 25 years old with two very young children and racing around to a child minder so I could get to my last presentation of my academy year.

I said goodbye to my children but little did I know what would happen next. As I came out of the flat, I fell down a flight of concrete stairs and my legs for the first time ever did the full splits – one leg went down the stairs and the other up the stairs!

I managed to get up, dust myself off and get into my car, but I knew at that point I was in trouble, the pain in my back was excruciating. I got through the day on my adrenaline, though I still can’t remember much of it.

The very next day I couldn’t get out of bed and when I tried to stand up, I was doubled over at a nighty five-degree angle. I strained to lift myself straight and couldn’t. That was the beginning of a long two years.

I was taken from pillar to post with doctors, consultants and physios pushing, prodding and poking me, putting me in traction – everything and anything was done to me, meanwhile nothing was helping to stop the immense pain I was going through.

They gave me a TENS machine, and I strapped it to my back on full power all the time. I was on painkiller, after painkiller, but still no relief and no movement from the nighty five-degree angle, I literally couldn’t stand up straight.

After two years of this I started to investigate alternative therapies and I tried them all, including chiropractors and osteopaths – you name it, I tried it.

In the December two years after the date of my accident, a Specialist Consultant from the NHS gave me a diagnosis: “You will be in a wheelchair the rest of your life with Hydrocortisone injections into your spine”.

His words hit me like a tonne of bricks, it broke my heart to think I couldn’t look after my children and play with them or ever dance again. I must admit I broke down at that point, I was inconsolable, I was twenty seven, a wheelchair.

I couldn’t give up, my consultants were wrong, I’m sure he wasn’t talking about me. I could find something to gain my health back surely. I think this is called the denial stage.

Just at that moment a friend of mine said, “have you tried Bowen?”. I laughed and replied, “what the coach company?”. She said, “no Bowen Therapy from Australia”.

“No,” I replied, “What’s that?”.

At which point she said, “I don’t know but I heard it is brilliant, a friend of mine went on a course, I’ve got the details, you should get in touch see if they can do anything for you”.

“OK,” I said, but really not holding out any hope I took the details down.

I called that very day and introduced myself and gave him a brief account of what had happened to me.

The man on the end of the phone said: “Can you get to my training class today? If you don’t mind my students watching what I’m doing to you, I can see you this afternoon”.

So I struggled into the car and was driven to him, TENS machine and all. In the back of my mind were the words “you will be in a wheelchair the rest of your life”, but the pain I was in was so extreme I just had to go and find out what this Bowen Therapy was all about.

An hour later we arrived, I hobbled into a studio where there were 12 trainees sitting looking at the man I had spoken to earlier who was at the front of the class, and I remember they were all writing frantically in their books.

I knocked the door hesitantly and walked or should I say crawled into the room. Everyone looked up and I started to get a bit nervous, all these eyes looking at a mess of a woman, the pain aging me by at least fifteen years, or so it felt.

He looked around and waved me over to a treatment bed at which point I started to panic – how was I ever going to get onto that, I could hardly move let alone climb onto a bed. He quickly nodded to a couple of students and they came straight over and pulled me onto the bed, I thanked them a little embarrassed, but grateful for their help.

He was a kind man in his approach, he asked me to explain to the group what had happened and what had been diagnosed.

Meanwhile he was taking the TENS machine off my back gently. He then proceeded to lay me on my front, something I hadn’t been able to do for the past two years and then he did three moves on my back.

I know what you’re thinking; three moves, what is that going to do? Well I was thinking the same, “this isn’t going to work”!

He then asked me to slide myself off the bed and stand up on my own. I thought he was mad, how was I going to do that.

But to my amazement that’s exactly what I did do, I stood up straight, no pain, no discomfort, full movement of my back, hips and legs, no TENS machine.

Well for all intents and purposes this was a miracle. I couldn’t believe it, I just stood and cried, the tears rolled down my face in sheer relief.

When I eventually got myself together, I asked if I could come and learn the art of Bowen Therapy, because it just seemed impossible to me, the transformation I had just undergone. I wanted to learn so I could help others. That’s when I started my journey to learn Bowen.

Bowen Therapy had truly saved my life.

Dusky now runs Cheltenham Bowen Centre, offering Bowen Therapy treatments to people suffering from illnesses, injuries, stress and other health issues.

For more information call Dusky on 07581 878799 or email her at info@cheltenhambowencentre.com