Alison Grimston

I was born in 1967, into a farming family with 2 older sisters and a younger brother. My father, a tenant farmer, was a great ideas man and entrepeneur - he set up what was probably the first Farm Shop in Britain, moving on from selling milk and eggs at the front door to the successful business that it is now (www.middlefarm.com), now run by my sister. Take a look for yourself! The only pity was, as he was a tenant, he never started on the property ladder.

I always loved animals, and used to take the dogs for long walks (ie disappear) from the age of 3. I loved sitting on a bank at the bottom of the garden, watching voles, for hours. My happy childhood was spent surrounded by dogs, a stream of hamsters and a pony.

I enjoyed school, and loved learning.

I broke my back in August 1988 in a car accident (rear seat passenger, no seatbelts), and the same summer I managed to get in to medical school through clearing.

I went to Charing Cross and Westminster medical school with a corset, a special cushion & large quantities of painkillers. I had to have physiotherapy, acupuncture, and Alexander Technique, throughout my studies, could not drink much alcohol because of my medication (my liver is probably very grateful now), and could only sit for 5-10 minutes, so had to lie down on the floor throughout lectures and tutorials. An interesting experience, one that I now see as important in developing courage and staying power.

After the first 2 years of medical school I did an intercalated BSc in pharmacology.

I then spent 3 years doing a PhD in physiology at St Mary’s Medical School. I was in a group of people working on the microcirculation, although my supervisor was working in the Wellcome Trust. The experience was vast; I travelled and presented work in poster and lecture format across the UK (The Physiological Society) and abroad (Zurich, Switzerland, and Louisville, Kentucky). I wrote up my thesis while I did the first clinical year at medical school, with a whole new group of medical students.

I met my husband, Guy during my research years, when he was working on my father’s farm as a contractor, and married him in August 1992.

I took the PhD viva, which was a grueling experience lasting 2-3 hours, at the end of which the examiners told me I hadn’t made it. I was awarded an MPhil, which felt like a consolation prize. I was distraught, but this was a useful education in failure. Back down to Sussex for Christmas. I could only bring myself to complete the corrections for the MPhil thesis on 24/12/2006 – 14 years later.

In September - October 1992 I went to New Zealand on my elective, with my mother. We toured for 2 weeks in a motor caravan, and had a wonderful time.

Back in the UK, I passed my exams, and started housejobs locally – Worthing & Brighton. These first jobs as a doctor were very difficult with my bad back, because of the long hours spent on my feet. I then did my General Practice Training based around Haywards Heath, and after applying for GP partnerships I Was accepted full time in Hailsham. I stayed full time from Sept 1999 until Feb 2005, by this time with two children, Daniel (born 1997) and Nathalie (born 2001).

In June 2004 I started to question the pressure I was under as a full time GP & mother. All my female GP friends were part time, even those without children. I had been drawn to a crystal healing shop in Lewes since February, and arranged an appointment with the lady there (Dawn), who was a spiritual healer & medium. I found that I needed to take 2 weeks away from the practice because of stress (something that is “never done” of course, but when you are crying between patients, something has to give…). I spent the time getting back to my roots – down at the local stables in Ashdown Forest, riding, mucking out, helping training & videoing dressage.

Dawn gave me a medium reading, my first ever (after all, that is all mumbo jumbo isn’t it?), and said that I was a healer. At the same time I had read an article in my “Your Horse” magazine about Margrit Coates, an animal healer, & suddenly it all clicked together – I could be an animal healer. Before I knew it I was on my journey into healing, which has continued over the last 2.5 years with me going every 1-2 weeks to a healing circle in Hove (where we meditate & do healing on each other), completing the NFSH (National Federation of Spiritual Healers) 10-module course, and completing the 4-module diploma in animal healing. It has also seen me recognise far more freely the balance I needed to make between work and home life. I found a job share partner and went part-time in Feb 2005.

My life is still very busy, but I generally know how to de-stress. I work in general practice for 5 sessions (ie half days) per week, work in Eastbourne hospital in urogynaecology for 1 session per week, and work for St Bede’s senior school for one hour per week. I fit in my healing work with humans and animals including distant healing, and setting up my website, around these hours.

My vision is a world where doctors are not afraid to recommend self-healing and complementary therapies to patients due to lack of knowledge, where patients have the knowledge and insight to harness their own healing together with medication, and where therapists have access to the information they need. Self healing occurs in the context of love and respect for self, others and the environment.