Every parent's worst nightmare is that their child will be struck down by a potentially fatal illness. Here Angie Buxton-King talks to HANNAH STEPHENSON about her tireless journey to help her son Sam...

When Angie Buxton-King discovered that her seven-year-old son Sam had leukaemia she faced every parent's worst nightmare.

Over the next three years they went down the conventional medical route, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, but Angie also began a tireless journey into all the complementary treatments available.

This led her to a number of healers and she learned how they could channel energy to empower the body. She soon decided to take it up herself, initially to help her son, and attended courses run by the National Federation of Spiritual Healers.

Angie carried out hands-on healing on Sam throughout his illness and doctors were amazed at how well he felt during his courses of chemotherapy while other children were sapped of energy and felt extremely ill.

She is convinced that her healing sessions with Sam allowed him to live an active life for the three years after he was diagnosed. Sadly he died at home, aged ten, in 1998.

But Angie's healing journey has not ended there. She has now become the only healer on the payroll of the NHS, working three days a week with cancer patients at University College London Hospital as well as running a private practice in Hertfordshire.

She has now written her story, The NHS Healer, about her healing experiences and how her son's life inspired her.

"The doctors at the hospital probably think I'm a complete nut but what they are happy with is that the patients feel the benefit," says the 48-year-old.

But Stephen Rowley, UCLH clinical nurse and manager, says: "Over the last four years that Angie has been in the team, the therapy of healing has become not only accepted, but also imperative to many of our patients.

"Although, clinically, healing remains little understood, the clinical effects are most evident and certainly tangible enough to satisfy the sceptical minds of doctors and nurses.

"We have seen patients with uncontrolled pain find more relief from healing than intramuscular opiates. We have seen patients in psychological states of utter desperation find huge comfort and coping abilities. We have seen patients report significant reductions in chemotherapy-related side effects.

"Healing is the most popular and well-received complementary therapy we provide on the unit."

During a 20-minute hands-on treatment, energy flows from Angie through the patients.

She explains: "People's energy systems get blocked up by emotional and physical trauma. As I'm an energy healer, the energy comes through, hits that blockage and creates vibration. So the body may shake and the emotional body just goes into a release, which may be crying, getting angry or whatever.

"A lot of people in the hospital will have that physical release. A lot of people will see colours behind their eyes and they tell me what the colours are and they always relate to the chakra (energy centre) system."

Far from the ethereal, slightly off-the-wall person you might expect, Angie is down to earth, practical, and admits that she was also a sceptic.

She first went to the hospital as a volunteer and knew she had to prove her worth. As she worked on patients, doctors saw that some of them felt better and suffered fewer side effects from the chemotherapy.

At her private practice, where her treatment room is dotted with therapeutic trinkets including a Buddha statue, crystals and burning candles, most of her patients are those suffering from stress-related illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, bad backs, migraines and fertility problems.

Angie believes that emotional blockages can manifest into physical problems. If you release the stress in a person, then whatever stress-related illness they have is going to be alleviated.

"I would never say cured because we all have stressful things that continue to come up and unless you re-educate people to handle their stress better, you are going to have a situation that's going to come back."

But as to the causes of Sam's leukaemia, Angie says she can't be certain.

"I do ask myself what could have caused it, but in Sam's case we have a huge history of cancer in our family. There was obviously a genetic link.

"Also, all the time I was pregnant with Sam my mother was dying of ovarian cancer. Maybe my emotional stress was going through to the baby. But I have no proof of that."

She says the treatment she gives is about more than making terminally ill people feel more comfortable, and she's sure it has contributed to the recovery of some cancer patients.

"We see a lot of patients who are in remission, but the complications of a lowered immune system will kill them because they will pick up a life-threatening infection. If you can give healing regularly it helps keep your immune system vigilant."

THE HEALING PROCESS:

Angie puts on music to create a relaxed atmosphere.

The patient lies on the bed while Angie suspends a crystal pendulum above particular parts of the body, including neck, chest and stomach, to check your chakras. She can tell if you have any emotional or physical blockages by the way the crystal moves above you.

You will be asked to shut your eyes and told that you may see colours during the treatment. Then she begins healing, which involves laying hands on various parts of your body.

Some people feel an intense heat running through the part of the body she is working on while others see colours.

As the channels are unblocked they can start shaking or their emotions may come to the surface and they may end up in tears, while others just feel relaxed.