Hi,

Linda

My name is Linda Bostock,

I qualified as a medical herbalist in 1993 after completing a four year diploma course at the school of Phytotherapy in East Sussex and have been running my clinic of herbal medicine since then, first in Slough and now in Eastbourne.

My oldest daughter had suffered very badly with allergies and food intolerance and had ended up at age 15, 5’7” tall, in hospital weighing 7 stone and very unwell. Despite me telling the nurses at registration that she had several allergies to medicines and listing them all and specifying that she must not be given anything orally without me being informed, she was given the drug Stemetil, to which she had a terrible reaction, causing her to have severe muscle spasms which affected her breathing.

The nurses and doctors at the time treated us appallingly, insinuating she was suffering from anorexia and as I had just had another baby she was attention seeking!!!! It took me about 4 hours of serious hassling to get a consultant to come and see her at 2 am, who laughed and said yes, Stemetil was known to have that reaction.

So I sat by her bed all night thinking this child, this precious, fantastic person I had nurtured for the past 15 years was going to die because nobody in that hospital cared. At 7 am I made them take her off her drip, picked her up from her hospital bed, carried her back to the car, took her home and phoned our G.P.

By the time we were together enough to ask to see her notes, they were predictably “lost”. Our G.P. Dr. Eyres was a slightly quirky slightly unorthodox man who would ask you if you had a cigarette on you that he could borrow, when you went in to the surgery (none of us have ever smoked so we never did), but who I trusted completely with my children’s lives.

Between the two of us we cared for her by putting her on a strict vegetarian diet and not giving her any foods that contained additives. She recovered slowly and now, at age 40 is married with her own three gorgeous children.

But I decided then that I would never sit beside a child’s bed and feel so hopeless and helpless. So with 2 big children, 2 little children, husband, house, garden, cats and working as an auxiliary nurse at the local hospital in the evenings (yes the same one) I embarked on a four year diploma course of herbal medicine, at that time the only accredited one in the world, which I did so that I could keep my children healthy, but discovered it was what I was supposed to be doing in life.

I will be taking you on herb walks on this site and pointing out the wealth of medicinal plants we all have growing in our local areas, even in towns. I will give an explanation of the medicinal properties of the plants, hopefully using examples of conditions for which they have been used in my Clinic.

I’ll also be reviewing topical conditions and treatments and a variety of over the counter products available for their treatment. It is very important to know when to self treat and when to seek professional help either from your Doctor or from a fully qualified herbal medicine practitioner and I will advise on this.

Please contact me below, if you would like to share any experiences with me. I would also be very interested to hear about medicinal plants that you have seen growing in your part of the world.

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