A gentle touch gave me strength to walk tall again; BACK TO BASICS: HOW A REVOLUTIONARY TREATMENT FOR SPINAL PAIN IS GIVING ONE WOMAN HOPE FOR A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE.

IT SHOULD have been perfect ... a month-long honeymoon touring the Greek Islands. So when newlywed Helen Howie came down with a flu-like virus after a week, she didn't let it ruin her break.

She didn't have a clue that she was showing the first symptoms of the debilitating condition ME.

In 1994, doctors finally made the diagnosis and Helen was left to cope with the disease, feeling drained of all energy and suffering great pain.

By 1995, just two years after those initial warning signs, Helen's condition had deteriorated so much that she was confined to a wheelchair.

At first, she thought her future was bleak, but with the help of her husband Ted, and a lot of determination, she is placing her hopes in a therapy, called the Alexander Technique, that she will one day find the strength to lead a normal life again.

When she returned from her honeymoon, Helen, 33, of Rutherglen, found that she couldn't shake off simple viruses like she could in the past.

She explained: "I caught every bug going. My resistance seemed to have dropped to rock bottom.

"I had swollen glands, migraines, aches and pains - and I was breaking out in horrendous skin rashes."

Helen had always felt that exercise made her feel better - but she soon found the that she didn't have the strength to go to the gym any more.

She added: "I was waking up in the mornings feeling like a wrung-out rag. I had no reserves left to fight anything. At Christmas, 1994, I came down with flu and it was like being hit with a baseball bat.

"I was confined to bed and couldn't move. No-one could understand it, because I was such a fit person. But I'd literally collapsed."

In the New Year of 1995, Helen's suspicions were confirmed when doctors diagnosed the myalgic encepholomyelitis.

She recalled: "It didn't come as a shock. I'd researched the medical dictionaries. All the symptoms were there.

"At the time, some people were saying that ME was all in the mind, but I knew it was real. No- one could tell me that being paralysed was all in my imagination."

What DID come as a shock to Helen, however, was the lack of treatment for her crippling condition.

She recalled: "On diagnosis, I was handed an A4 sheet of `Handy Hints' by the doctor and that was it. Basically, I was expected to get on with it."

The determination Helen found to fight her condition is something which she has called on a lot in the past. Before she fell ill, she juggled a full-time job while studying for her PhD in adult education and being a single mum, caring for her daughter Laura, now 15, who has severe learning difficulties.

She said: "I've been a fighter all my life. I'd had some pretty hard times, especially as a single mum, before I met Ted.

"It had been an uphill struggle for years, coping with Laura's problems and trying to get her the care she needed. But whenever I'd been faced with a major problem, I'd battle my way through it."

True to form, Helen battled against the disease. But, after six months, she found that she was absolutely exhausted.

She said: "Coping with ME is about energy management. What little you have, you need to conserve, just to get through the day. I was draining mine in my determination to get well as soon as possible.

"I pushed myself too far. By the end of 1995, I was in a wheelchair."

Forced to give up the job she'd loved, and her studies, Helen found herself trapped indoors, bed- ridden, unable even to summon the energy to talk to friends. She said: "I couldn't even string a sentence together. My concentration was totally shot. I couldn't read a paper or watch TV."

Husband Ted, 34, a researcher, became Helen's carer. She recalled: "I became totally dependent on him.

"I was like a geriatric, unable to help myself in the simplest tasks, so he'd have to lift me, turn me, wash me, do almost everything for me.

"I'd always been such an independent person, but the odd thing was, I didn't get bitter or resentful about suddenly being totally reliant on someone else. I was just so grateful he was there."

Because Helen had been unable to move, her muscles began to waste away.

She received urgent physiotherapy to minimise the damage, but the treatment left her even more exhausted.

She said: "The treatment made me tired, but it was the only time I managed to get any sleep.

"I'd lie awake, begging for sleep to come and release me from the pain. I'd be twitching all over, soaked in sweat.

"The doctor prescribed sleeping pills, but I knew they weren't the answer. I felt that my condition was incurable. Medical science simply hadn't come up with any answers."

But where science had failed, Helen began to wonder whether homeopathy might offer some relief.

She began to look into alternative therapies. She said: "After the physio helped, I got interested in reflexology.

"After a session, I felt relaxed and I wasn't aching as much. The constant nausea and sweats disappeared for days."

Helen began to look at other holistic therapies, which treat the mind and spirit, as well as the body.

Helen had developed an intolerance to many foods and had lost over two stones in weight.

Because of this, she tried kinesiology, a holistic discipline which tackles food allergies.

Her therapist believed that her alergies could be linked to her emotions and told Helen that all the stresses she was keeping stored up inside her were affecting her wellbeing.

On top of the special diet, the therapist also recommended that Helen try the Alexander Technique, a special massage and exercise routine for people with back problems.

Helen believes the results that followed are nothing short of miraculous.

She said: "I went to see practitioner Jim Currie. On that very first session, he started by looking at the way I was sitting in my chair.

"He spotted how tense I was, how my shoulders were hunched up, like I was carrying a huge weight of responsibility on my shoulders. Which of course, all my adult life, I had done. He explained that the Alexander Technique started by focussing on the head, back and shoulders - our bodily support system.

"With light touch, some gentle massage and instructions on how to stand, move and sit in a different way, he could correct some of the problems in these areas."

As well as looking at Helen's physical problems, Jim also tried to find out what emotional problems in Helen's life may have contributed to her illness.

Helen said: "Very often, physical aches, pains and illnesses are linked with the way we think and act.

"Jim wanted to know what I thought about myself. Like so many women, I'd always had a poor body image.

"I'd been bulimic in my twenties. My boyfriend at the time was the sort of guy who thought a woman could never be too thin.

"I'd got rid of the boyfriend and conquered my eating disorder, but I'd never really tackled the issue of what had caused it - my own low self-esteem. That was what Jim began to work on and I noticed the difference almost immediately."

Helen began to attend weekly sessions and was amazed at her progress. The holistic approach of tackling the whole person, emotional and physical, helped her to grow stronger in both senses.

As the exercises improved her physical strength, she had more energy to tackle the emotional roots of the problems. And that made her feel more positive, providing strength for further physical improvement.

She said: "At heart, the Alexander Technique is really about the discovery of self-belief, learning to be aware of yourself and your needs.

"It's also about getting rid of all your bad habits, those negative, destructive attitudes we've lived with for so long.

"Jim tapped in to things that I'd buried all my life. There was a lot of old pain trapped inside me that I had to let go of."

Helen believes that she had never fully coped with her daughter's disabilities. Instead of dealing with her own feelings, Helen's priority was to be strong for everyone else.

She said: "For all those years, I'd proved I was strong, capable, a survivor and an achiever. But inside, the real me wanted to collapse.

"Finally, because I wouldn't give in, I went down with ME - and my body did it for me. It was a revelation. From that point on, I began to get better."

Today, just a year after she discovered the Alexander Technique, Helen's health has altered dramatically.

She said: "Through working on both my body and my attitude, I've changed. I've finally discovered the person inside me that was screaming to be let out.

"Now I can get out of my wheelchair. I can stand unaided. I can even take short walks - something I'd never have believed possible not so long ago.

"I've taken up writing poetry and am planning a novel. I've done a course in alternative therapies and would like to teach them. But it's the small things that, when you're healthy, you take so much for granted, I get the greatest joy from.

"I can't tell you how blissful it is to be able to sit outside the back door in the spring sunshine for 15 minutes, and have no pain.

"It's also great to be able to chat to friends without completely losing the plot and needing to lie down.

"Not all victims of ME recover their health. Most get back to around 75 per cent fit eventually, and have to live their lives accordingly.

"I know I'm still a long way off being healthy, but using the Alexander Technique has convinced me that I'll be 100 per cent well again.

"It has given me new hope that I'll get my life back."

Alexander Technique could help ease stress

JIM CURRIE believes that Helen's case of ME is far from isolated, striking women who do too much.

And, he reckons, there could be an epidemic among over-stretched, over-stressed Scots women.

He said: "As a nation we subscribe to the old Presbyterian work ethic. We sometimes push ourselves too far, for too long.

"And that habit is ingrained in childhood. Our education system is among the finest in the world. But it's hardly based on nurture and praise. We adopt the `just get on with it' attitude from an early age.

"That is fine up to a point. It's learning when to say to yourself: `Enough's enough'.

"That's where the Alexander Technique is so effective. It helps you unlearn bad habits, opens you up to a healthy lifestyle - and gives you the choice. It's YOUR life.

"Helen was ready to change. And that's what it needs, to take the first step."

Actor Frederick Alexander developed his technique in the early part of this century. He believed that modern life dumps unnatural stresses on the human frame.

He wanted to create a safe method of moving our bodies naturally - in the way they were designed to move, before cars, chairs and high heels changed our lives.

It focuses on body awareness, teaching us how to understand, manage and use our bodies.

Through this, it helps us cope with stress, eliminate pain and combat illness.

The principle is that, once we free our bodies from aches and tension, we gain a more positive outlook, boost our emotional health, improve our thinking power and gain real quality of life.

Although a lot centres on understanding the principles, it's always backed up with hands- on help.

Teachers guide the patient's body into the correct position for optimum health.

Jim is an accredited member of STAT (the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique) and can be contacted at Harmony in Glasgow (0141 401 1369). Sessions normally last 45 minutes and cost around pounds 20.

There are around 40 accredited practitioners in Scotland. Contact STAT (0171 351 0828) for a list of practitioners near you.

A handy book for those interested is: Teach Yourself Alexander Technique (Hodder & Stoughton, pounds 6.99).