The Restorative Room

Learning from lifes lessons

The Restorative Room is the result of my own families journey through cancer, and my desire to always take a positive from every negative and to listen and learn from every lesson life gives me. I’m proud to have created a beautiful, relaxing and safe spa environment where clients can leave cancer at the door and just ‘be’. A place to switch off, relax, revive and restore the body & mind - enjoying treatments that feel luxurious and pampering whilst at the same time benefiting from products that have been specifically designed to deliver a range of benefits to help counter common treatment side effects of cancer treatment.

Having a cancer diagnosis in the family is a frightening and bewildering time for all involved. I can still remember the feeling of helplessness I felt when my mum was diagnosed. The huge desire to help and take away the stress and pain, but struggling to find the right gestures, words and acts to feel I was making a difference. I remember the cards and flowers, bought from well meaning friends and relatives all keen to show they cared and were there for her. Lovely to look at but of little practical help. Finding a beautiful but practical gift for someone with cancer can a real challenge. Standard get-well gifts don’t always fit with the side effects of cancer treatment. Chocolates for someone who has lost their appetite or is suffering nausea feels cruel, finding the right toiletries and skin care products for someone with increased sensitivity and sore dry skin can be a mine field and there really are only so many bunches of flowers a person needs.

I still remember clearly the gap between diagnosis and having a clear treatment plan, a scary and bewildering time, when imagination goes into overdrive and you fill in your own blanks with every possible worst case scenario. Once the Consultants had formulated their plan and we knew pattern the coming weeks and months needed to take it was time to put our trust in the NHS and have faith that they would do everything they could to ensure a positive outcome. Thankfully for our family we have navigated our way through the worst of it, ongoing treatment remains a part of life as it turns out Bladder Cancer doesn’t give up but the outcome remains positive. I realise how lucky we are and know things don’t work out this way for every family.

I’m a firm believer that its important to find the positive in every negative and that life has a way of providing us with challenges to help us grow, become stronger and find new paths. I felt that it was important to take the lessons supporting someone through cancer had taught me and find an opportunity to use them. That opportunity presented itself last year when I was made redundant. It felt like life was telling me it was the right time to find a new purpose and direction. My mum had always proactively managed her health and well being and had regular massages to help her manage back pain. She was therefore really disappointed to find that following her diagnosis that her regular therapist was unable to treat her as her insurance didn’t cover treating a client with cancer. I qualified as a Sports and Remedial Massage therapist 12 years ago and knew that cancer was stated as one of the primary contraindications for treatment. Without the right post graduate training I would potentially be in the same situation of turning away a client at a point in their lives when they probably needed it most. It felt like this was the lesson I needed to learn from what life had thrown at us and it was time to add to my skills and experience so that I could support others through their treatments and beyond.