Hoxton Health

Much of Hackney was bombed in the Second World War, and apart from a very pretty museum and a monstrously large redbrick church, the area around the Hoxton Health project is low-rise coucil estate, with plenty of concrete and little vegetation.  Only a nearby street mural, a mosaic of green fields and springing fountains, seems to offer an alternative vision.

The residents of this inner city borough are largely not well-off: many are former care assistants and nurses, carpenters and postmen.  The mixture of careers in manual work and the loss of friends and relatives with advancing age contribute to ill-health, with frequent cases of immobility and lonliness. Many are suffering with chronic pain in conditions for which there's no obvious cure.

Hoxton Health allows people to access exercise classes and complementary therapies at prices that fit their income: usually around £10 - 13: around a fifth of the going London rate.  It's remarkable for not rationing its services. Many people are referred to the project by their doctors, but people can just turn up as well.  Their offices are donated by the local PCT and they are kept going by charitable funds and volunteers.

Lisa, a user of the service and also a Trustee says.  'For instance, a friend of mine, a midwife, had a really nasty road accident in 2005 and lost her foot.  She had a lot of trouble getting the right prosthetic replacement, just at the time when hospitals were swamped with casualties of the tube bombings.  She came here every week for a year to have shiatsu, and said it was the only place where she got help with the acute shock of the accident.'

Marion is typical of the many users who are troubled by arthritis.  Her doctor has offered her knee replacement surgery, but having had previous operations in Africa, she's reluctant to take that route again.  For the past two years she's been managing her condition with acupuncture and massage.  'I'm still moving, and even a bit better.  My doctor says I look really well.  The operation's still there when I want it, but it's up to me to choose.' 

Hackney's maze-like geography and bemusing bus routes can make some parts of the borough feel as remote as a Cumbrian village.  The project's full-time organiser, osteopath Susan Chambers says 'we realised that some older people could not travel to our centre in Hoxton, so we got in touch with a couple of GP surgeries in these more remote parts of Hackney and now we have satellite clinics there instead.  We plan to continue this strategy of offering complementary therapies closer to where older people live, and hope to find other Health Centres that are accessible and happy to accommodate us for a few hours a week'.

So many projects offering complementary support live precariously, many last just a year or two.  It's encouraging to see a project that's been sustained for over 20 years and yet is still light on its feet.  As Annette Coombs says 'This service is invaluable.  We all say "how would we live without it?"'