Healing Hub: I couldn’t have climbed Scaraben without oxygen therapy
Maria Aitken has managed to scale new heights after undergoing regular oxygen therapy sessions at the Healing Hub in Wick.
The early years teacher from Keiss has seen a huge difference in her asthma in the six or seven months she has been using the barochamber at the voluntary-run Braehead centre.
There has been such an improvement that in September she felt able to climb to the 626m summit of Scaraben – and achieved it “no bother at all”.
Maria, who is secretary of Caithness Health Action Team, describes the Healing Hub as “such an asset to the county”.
She found out about it from her mother, Patsy Blunden, one of the small team of volunteers who welcome more than 20 regular users who have a wide range of health conditions.
Maria said: “It was my mum that told me about the health benefits of the chamber and how it helps people with breathing difficulties..
“Previous to coming to the chamber, my asthma was playing up. I was coughing and coughing the whole time and it was interfering with my life.
“If you’re coughing in meetings it’s so embarrassing, particularly after Covid. I started coming to the chamber and that cough has more or less disappeared.
“The family have all commented on it as well – they’re seeing the difference in me.
“My asthma has significantly improved. I do oxygen level tests before I go in the chamber and then after, and I do lung capacity before and after, and you can physically see the difference.
“I’ve been taking that the whole way through, since I started – the difference in my lung capacity and the oxygen level – and it does definitely help.
“I recently climbed Scaraben, no bother at all, and I couldn’t have done it before I started coming to the chamber.”
She added: “Over Christmas, when I hadn’t been attending, I could see my cough coming back again. I could feel it, that I needed to get back in the chamber.
“Usually, this time every year, I’m on steroids and antibiotics – it’s a pattern. Touch wood, not this year.
“You don’t want to be on steroids if you can avoid it.
“I am still on asthma medication, I still take that, but this is something that definitely does help. I’ve got psoriasis and eczema too, and my skin has definitely improved.”
Maria was speaking on emerging from the chamber after her latest hour-long oxygen therapy session, on Friday morning. She had bought a book to read and had downloaded an episode of The Traitors to watch on her phone.
“I come prepared because it’s an hour of just switching off,” she said.
Users need to wear a tight-fitting mask within the close confines of the chamber. Maria pointed out: “When you know it benefits you so much, you will persevere with it. You do get used to it.
“Definitely it has huge benefits. And it’s not just people saying that – there’s research that supports it all as well.
“And the volunteers are fabulous, honestly. That makes the difference, a friendly face when you come in.
“I wouldn’t come in if I didn’t feel that atmosphere of friendliness.
“Not a lot of people know about the chamber and the health benefits. I didn’t know until my mum started volunteering. I just thought it was for MS patients.”
Patsy, former publican at the Mountain Dew and Harbour Lights, directly across the road from the Healing Hub in Smith Terrace, has been helping for about three years.
“It’s good for me because I’ve met so many different people that I didn’t know before,” Patsy explained.
“My niece died – she had MS and she was only young. I’d said to her on numerous occasions, ‘Why don’t you try the therapy centre?’ She never did.
“After she died, you get upset because you’ve lost somebody that’s close to you, and I thought, ‘I’ve got some extra time, I could go and help.’
“I just came in here one day and ever since then I’ve been helping out.
“I had been saying to Maria for quite a while about coming in here.”