Loudon Temple

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Catchline: Health Oscar

A Renfrewshire natural therapy centre just voted the best in Britain in the UK’s complementary medicine Health Oscars is pioneering new treatments for problem children.

Ferrington’s Scotland, situated on the Finlaystone estate, near Langbank, Renfrewshire, learned only this week it had won the complementary and alternative medicine trade’s top honour, the 2004 CAM Award, for being the outstanding practice in Britain.

It is the first time the award has been won by a Scottish practice.

Founded five years ago, the centre has 25 practitioners providing a range of some 30 services and therapies.

Last night, as Ferrington’s celebrated the news, co-owner Lorraine Ferrie, 51, talked about her dream of establishing a national children’s foundation to provide natural therapy, nutritional help and other therapies to youngsters suffering from autism, hyper-activity, attention deficit disorders and other problems.

She also attacked the increasing use of the controversial drug Ritalin, a Class A amphetamine, on children in Scotland.

A ten-fold increase in Ritalin’s usage in Scotland since 1996 has prompted the country’s National Health watchdog, Quality Improvement Scotland, to conduct a national audit.

It is estimated 16,500 children a year, aged between 4 and 16, are prescribed Ritalin by their GPs.

The drug has been described as a “chemical cosh.”

At the Ferrington’s centre mother of three Lorraine has been treating problem children for three years through Reike, a holistic therapy used to release blocked energies and accelerate the healing process. Thought to have originated in ancient Egypt, it was rediscovered and developed by a Buddhist monk in Japan.

She said: “Children with problems, particularly from the age of 8 upwards, benefit tremendously from Reike, and respond well to it. Coupled with nutritional supplements, such as fish oil, it can be very effective. It’s a natural approach with no reliance on prescribed drugs.

“I’ve been treating children for three years now with a lot of success and I love the work. I’d dearly love for, say, the National Lottery to weigh in with a grant to establish a national children’s centre.

“We live in a world that is poisoning the planet and poisoning itself. We have to get back to a more natural lifestyle.

“Nobody comes into alternative medicine to make a fortune. It’s about making a difference and helping people with their problems.”

She and her Ferrington’s co-founder Mo Weibye, 57, will be presented with their 2004 Cam Award at a ceremony in the Spring.

Mo said last night: “We are absolutely thrilled at winning the top award. We were shortlisted the previous year but thought that was as close as we might get.

“What this Cam Award signals is that complementary medicine in Scotland is raising its standards in terms of professionalism and client care.

“It is recognition that alternative medicine in Scotland has an increasingly important role to play in improving the well-being of people’s lives.”

Therapies available at the centre include: stress management, detoxes, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, osteopathy, acupuncture, yoga classes, physiotherapy, reiki, medical herbalism, nutritional advice; holistic beauty treatments and many others.

The centre has clients from all over Scotland.

The Cam Awards are sponsored by The Nutri Centre. The awards not only highlight ground-breaking work, they also recognise practitioners who make a major impact on their communities.

ENDS

Loudon Temple

CATCHLINE: FER

STANDFIRST: When two determined women set out to “make a difference” in people’s lives through alternative medicine, the world had better move over. Between them, they sold three family homes to invest in their dream.

LOUDON TEMPLE meets the founders behind Ferrington’s Scotland, winner of this year’s top UK alternative health Oscar, and discovers a unique, and little publicised national treasure.

FEATURE:

In the business of unkinking the stresses and strains of modern living it’s the little things that tell you Ferrington’s Scotland is something out of the ordinary.

For a start, the locus is a beautifully converted old coach house and outbuildings in the lush grounds of Finlaystone House, an estate that once captured the heart of Queen Victoria.

Hard by the M8 near Langbank, Renfrewshire, overlooking a scenic stretch of the Clyde, the estate and its mansion house were almost bought by her; instead she opted for Balmoral.

Then there’s the attitude of the clientele.

There is a genuine affection for the place, which provides some 30 treatments and alternative therapies via 25 practitioners, one of whom is a nutritionist who commutes from Harley Street, London.

In what other private clinic would a customer pop in with two airline tickets for the centre’s founders Mo Weibye, 57, and Lorraine Ferrie, 51, saying: “You two have been working awfully hard. Why don’t you go off for lunch – in Paris?”

She had bought the tickets over the Internet as a surprise gift.

Mo, a pencil slim blonde with very direct eye contact, giggles at the memory. “I didn’t even tell Lorraine about it. I just told her to meet me at Prestwick airport. It was a complete surprise.

“We did all the usual sights, had a nice meal and flew back that night.”

It’s not an isolated incident, either, says Mo. “Our clients are brilliant. They are loyal and supportive and they love us to bits.”

It’s a two-way traffic, of course.

The Ferrington’s ethos is encapsulated in the company motto: “No-one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

That motto is aimed as much at the centre’s practitioners as at the clients. And if it sounds as if it has been unearthed from a Chinese fortune cookie, the bald fact remains, customers respond to that philosophy. In spades.

In the darker days when the centre, which began life in Bridge of Weir some five years ago, was facing a particularly sticky patch, and the partners faced the prospect of losing their homes, a customer weighed in with a collateral-free personal loan to tide them over.

On the office wall, too, is a gift from an artist client, a handsome painting of two Yorkie terriers, used at the centre as therapy pets.

“The dogs break down barriers,” explains Mo. “When some people come here for the first time they can be a little bit apprehensive. The dogs help relax them. Once they feel comfortable treatments can begin. It saves time.”

With a certain serendipity, Ferrington’s co-founder Lorraine has found herself in possession of a Yorkie therapy pet called Dexter, who at a fraction over four inches, was the smallest dog in Britain – although a liking for bowls of cornflakes these days may have put that claim in abeyance.

For a centre which only advertises locally, Ferrington’s has a established a surprisingly extensive geographic “footprint” through word of mouth recommendation.

Since moving to the Finlaystone estate two years ago the centre has amassed a client list of around 6000. They come from Arrochar to Dunbar and the Borders. Ferrington’s even gets islanders regularly coming from Uist on trips to the mainland.

“That’s usually to see our osteopath, and it’s mostly women. We pick them up from the airport then take them back again or into Glasgow after their appointments,” says Mo. “We get quite a few celebrities and well-known people from the arts, as well as a lot of business people, but we’re not a yuppie place.

“When Lorraine and I went into business together, we were very clear on one thing – we wanted to make a genuine difference in people’s lives. We are not in this to make a fortune.”

The average cost of a treatment session at Ferrington’s is £35 to £40.

Mo says: “The people who come here feel safe, are comfortable with us and they trust us. The youngest person we have is eight years old and the oldest is 84.”

Lorraine Ferrie and Mo first met up years ago over a coffee at a music show in Glasgow and immediately hit it off.

At the time she ran her own driving school in Renfrewshire. But it had always been her dream to move into this field. Mo had a commercial background.

“At the time we first discussed it, alternative medicine in Scotland had a slightly backstreet, amateurish image and we wanted to raise the standard,” says Mo.

Lorraine added: “We both wanted to get away from folk going to small back street rooms with blinds on the windows and plastic chairs.”

In the Finlaystone estate, the centre has certainly escaped that fate. Ferrington’s is also Britain’s first integrated practice where mainstream doctors have come to practise alternative medicine.

Mo’s own background is as colourful as the centre’s. She’s the daughter of a Norwegian resistance war hero who moved to Scotland and married a councillor’s daughter 30 years his junior.

In the 1950s he introduced the Downie (forerunner of the duvet) into Scotland and opened a chain of shops. At one time he also owned a couple of hotels, one of them the famous Colquhoun Arms, in Luss.

Mo’s commercial experience was gained working in the family business. The décor of the centre she leaves to Lorraine, the artistic half of the partnership.

A mother of three, and grandmother of five, Lorraine is now a master of reike, a therapy used to release blocked energies and accelerate the healing process.

Currently she is pioneering treatment sessions with children suffering from behavioural problems – and having considerable success, says Mo.

“She has a real gift for treating children,” she said.

Until recently, Mo concentrated completely on the admin side of running the centre. Then it found itself short of a no-smoking course and Mo volunteered to take it on. There were a few raised eyebrows; at the time Mo was, herself, a 5 to 20 a day smoker, depending on the stress of juggling the centre’s finances.

She drew up her own no smoking programme, quit, and hasn’t had a cigarette in five months. Cravings? “None,” she says briskly. “I don’t miss them.”

She also does life coaching.

There was a time when it looked as if Ferrington’s would never get off the ground.

Mo recalls storming back into a bank manager’s office after a personal interview with him saw her request for a business loan sneeringly dismissed. “Some day I’ll probably thank you, because you’ve made me good and mad,” she informed him. “But this business is going to get off the ground and be a big success.”

She went straight from the bank to see Lorraine and said: “If you’re really serious about this, our homes will have to go on the line. I’ll sell mine first to raise the start-up capital we need. Later on, if we need more capital, you’ll sell yours.”

The deal between the two friends was sealed on a handshake. Three houses later, and an investment of some £200,000 later, their dream is paying off.

ENDS