A piece recently published in The Society of Homeopaths December issue
The great thing about we homeopaths is that we never give up. I don’t know anyone who sees the homeopathic light who ever lets it go out and then they deny it – unless it’s the noble Professor of Complementary Medicine, Edzard Ernst. Longevity is not a reason either for giving up the practice of the true art and science, even though technically some people retire. Such a one is Helen Campbell, who has been practicing in Edinburgh and in the ex-mining town of Armadale in West Lothian for longer than many can remember. Helen is a fiercely committed homeopath who, now in her 10th decade, continues to fly the flag for homeopathy and homeopathy education. When I first visited her house and practice in Armadale, I was struck by the fact she had a large notice at her gate saying Homeopathic Practice in case anyone was in any doubt about finding her. The rest of the town is fairly run down, as many of these industrial places in Scotland are, so this was no twee gentrified location to set up shop- Helen wants to bring homeopathy to the masses. I had a practice in Edinburgh then in Abercrombie Place, which I shared with Diane Goodwin, that rare New York lady so sadly missed since she retired from practice.
Helen had asked me to call in and look at her daughter’s art work. as I had never been to Armadale. I had met Helen at various Society events and she came to a homeopathy retreat I was running in Dunkeld, so I knew her quite well. I had recently founded the Art and Homeopathy group and Helen was keen for me to see Sheena’s work which was stored in a bedroom at the house. Sheena Moyes herself was in a hospital, where she was suffering the last of her traumatic life with AIDS. Sheens had caught the disease from a batch of infected blood during a transfusion. Helen had promised Sheena that she would try to show her art work before she died, as Sheena had been painting her rather disturbing but moving pictures for many years and there was a large body of work. I looked at the work and said I knew someone who could give a professional eye on the work and advise Helen. My friend Terry Duffy is an artist in Liverpool and he came up to look at the work, with the result that he archived it for Helen and set up a web site for its display. Sadly Sheena died in 2016 before the work was able to be displayed, but the seed had been sown for something much bigger than an art collection. Terry and I talked to Helen about setting up a foundation which could be a memorial to Sheena and to homeopathy and Helen was very keen as she had always wanted to have some means of bringing education for homeopathy to the public.
Sheena Moyes’ canvase
I told Helen that I knew a legal practice near me in Pitlochry which specialised in setting up charities, which she was keen to do, so I went for a meeting with the woman involved, on Helen’s behalf. It was really a question of my putting them in touch and we eventually met up in Edinburgh. Helen moved into Edinburgh, both houses would have been large enough to be used for the foundation but as Edinburgh was large enough to host meetings and have a homeopathy library that Associates could use. Eventually the Helen Campbell Homeopathy Foundation SCIO was born and I am proud to be one of the Directors. Helen is now retired from her homeopathy practice, having also been recently widowed and is concentrating on the work of the Foundation. I don’t know how many people have read Vita Sackville West’s novel All Passion Spent, about an 88year old woman who defies her family after her husband’s death and embarks on the pursuit of her own passion, carefully hidden all her life, but the parallel is there. What is passion when it keeps on driving? It is not a function of age to lose passion; growing old gratefully and not disgracefully, is the key to keeping passion alive in the right way and Helen embodies this in her Foundation.
Helen in the reading room at Ravelston Park
What is the Foundation about? We could start by asking what it isn’t. It’s not a way of seeking homeopathic treatment. The Foundation constitution is as follows:-
3.1 The Charitable Purposes of the SCIO (“the Charitable Purposes”) are:
3.1.1 to promote, support and fund educational projects that relate to use of homeopathic energies to support the health, wellbeing and growth of people, animals and plants;
3.1.2 to advance knowledge, education and public awareness in respect to the health and healing benefits of homeopathic medicine and remedies, throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally;
3.1.3 to provide relief to those in need by reason of ill-health, disability or other disadvantage by promoting the benefits of homeopathic remedies for first aid, acute and chronic problems of ill health; and
3.1.4 to support projects that advance mental, emotional and physical wellbeing through the application of homeopathic philosophy and medicine, in particular community projects
We were all ready to go of course when the pandemic hit and any idea of face-to-face projects went into cold storage. But the basic model is the same; we want to attract Associates who will be able to use the facilities of the Foundation to further their study of homeopathy. The Associates are not trained homeopaths but members of the public who wish to use homeopathy for themselves. Of course, there is nothing to stop those Associates with some knowledge from pursuing it further and the resources of the Foundation are available to them. There is a large study and meeting area in the Foundations premises in Ravelstone Park which can be booked for events such as educational activities. These events will supplement those which the Foundation will lay on itself and all events will be free, funded by Helen through the Foundation. The only costs will be for issuing tickets, an administration charge.
Helen wants to think big and she talks about hiring larger premises for the public to attend homeopathy awareness events. These events will be an ambition for the future as we await the freeing up of face-to-face meetings at larger venues. Her intention is to build for this sort of event so any smaller events with the public will be good learning opportunities.
What the Foundation really needs is for people to get involved. There is an opportunity now to recruit the public on our side as we contend with an uncertain future in health care. The pasting we have received at the hands of the sceptics is nothing compared with the interest the public have in homeopathy and other complementary therapies. Our biggest threat is not the sceptics but lack of understanding about what we do. The use of homeopathy in the UK is only with about 1% of the population (Covid 19 kills about that many) compared to the use in Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany, where it is more than 10%. (Source https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00508-020-01624-x) Many people in the UK want to use homeopathy but are limited by their knowledge of what we do. What is it? I am often asked, Is it like herbal medicine? We have such a good opportunity to redress this balance and educate people about what we do, if we can only provide the opportunities for them to find out. The greater use in the countries mentioned above may be down to more public awareness because homeopathy is practiced more in mainstream medicine. In Scotland, I was once told by another stalwart of Scottish homeopathy, Margaret Roy, people prefer socialised medicine. Indeed, homeopathy was once a huge part of medicine in Scotland and available on the NHS until recently. So letting people know what we do is pushing at an open door if we have people like Helen Campbell doing the pushing. It’s about being hopeful and positive about our strengths. One of these may well be how we respond to the aftermath of the pandemic, as the NHS is struggling to look after all the people clamouring for help. Our constitution aims are clearly of importance here in helping people during a health crisis.
Educating the public about homeopathy can be fun as well. In 2018 I did a show at the Edinburgh Fringe in the venue where I had my practice room. The show was called, provocatively, the Snake Oil Art Show and I presented an interactive account of the case of a patient cured through the use of homeopathy and a remedy which came through her art work. We had a total of over 30 people for four shows and it was better numbers than average for a fringe show. I charged £5.00 entrance fee and gave people an offer to submit a questionnaire about their health and a chance to have a consultation. Had the Foundation been operating then, Helen would have helped me with the funding to set it up. It fulfilled the criteria for presenting a public homeopathy information and participation event. I may well consider running it again as a Foundation event.
Author Ian Hamilton RSHom, outside the Fringe venue
Another possibility which we will be discussing is to be at the Edinburgh Book Festival with a homeopathy book publisher or one of the travelling book shops so popular at our much missed gatherings. This is another way of engaging with the public in a public place and maybe entering into a dialogue when books can be a focus and resource. Margaret Roy is currently finishing her fifth book in a series on Homeopathy.
If anyone does want to contribute or become involved, then one of the things we are looking for is fresh approaches and fearless involvement in telling people about homeopathy and what it can do, without our having to worry about being censured and judged. Please look at our constitution aims and see if you can help with bringing them to the attention of people who are unaware of the benefits of what homeopathy can do for them. Hitherto, I think the main dialogue homeopaths have had with the public is through being invited to address, for example, parent groups or women’s groups. These are fine opportunities but waiting to be invited is not proactive enough. Hope is in short supply for many people since the pandemic (and before if we are honest) and if we can give people hope to improve their health then we are winners.
In the first instance anybody who is interested in becoming involved in the work of the Foundation should sign up to become an Associate and if you wish to put on an educational or awareness event you should contact us. Please look at the web site – still with a few teething problems of content – and see what grabs you. We would love your involvement.
Helen Campbell Homeopathy Foundation CIC
