As Wimbledon fortnight begins, player-turned-TV presenter Annabel Croft describes how her life has been transformed by homeopathy. Aconite, gelsemiun, ignatia… just a few things you might want to have handy when Andy Murray steps out at Wimbledon this week. For these homeopathic remedies can be helpful if, in respective order, you're feeling anxious and fearful, suffering pre-match nerves in the stands at Centre Court or, worse still, concerned that you might be grief-stricken when the umpire calls game, set and match.
You won't be alone in relying on homeopathic help; in the commentary box, former England women's number one Annabel Croft, now a TV presenter and mother of three, will be reaching for a cocktail of remedies to see her through the tournament.
Annabel, who is reporting from Wimbledon for BBC Radio 5 Live and GMTV, has been taking homeopathic medicine in advance of the competition to prepare for whatever comes her way this week.
But her first encounter with homeopathy – a form of complementary treatment based on the premise that tiny quantities of certain substances can stimulate the body's natural forces of recovery – came in rather more dramatic circumstances.
In 2003, Annabel, now 42, began suffering throbbing pains on her lower left-hand side. The pain was sometimes so intense that, on several occasions, it caused her to faint. At one point, her daughter Amber, now 15, was so frightened she was on the verge of calling an ambulance.
After referral from a GP, an ultrasound scan from a private doctor showed that Annabel had developed a cyst on her left ovary. While ovarian cysts – fluid-filled sacs – are common and usually painless, if they swell, they can cause acute pain and may need to be removed. Annabel's pain was "unbearable", she says, and her GP thought she would need an operation.
When cysts become a serious problem, they fall into three types. According to the NHS Choices, an online compendium from the health service, if a cyst is growing on a stem from an ovary, the stem can become twisted. This stops the blood supply, causing severe discomfort in the lower abdomen. Alternatively, it may burst, with very painful results. The effects you feel depend on what the cyst contained, whether it is infected and if there is any bleeding. Lastly, occasionally, a cyst is an early form of ovarian cancer. However, about 95 per cent are non-cancerous.
When Annabel mentioned her cyst to a friend, she was advised to see local homeopath Hilery Dorrian, but was sceptical. "I'd grown up believing diseases were out there waiting to get us. When I saw Hilery, I was astonished to see my ideas of health turned on their head. She explained to me that homeopathy treats the real causes of illness in the body, not just the symptoms – as conventional medicine does. The whole concept made so much sense to me. It was a huge turning point.
"Hilery didn't perform a physical examination. Instead, she asked me about my background, my personality, my emotions, what made me stressed – even my parents' health. She constructed a picture of me and gave me a remedy made up exactly to treat my left ovary."
Homeopathic remedies can be taken in several ways, the most traditional being to place small white pillules – pin-head-sized sucrose pills containing an active ingredient diluted down to microscopic quantities – under the tongue, several times a day. They can be dissolved in warm water if preferred, and creams and tinctures containing the key ingredients are also available.
Annabel left Dorrain's homeopathy centre with an open mind, but not expecting a miracle. However, after taking the prescribed pillules, her cyst gradually became less painful; the throbbing stopped; and she never went back to her GP. She is convinced that the homeopathic remedies she took enhanced and perhaps speeded up the healing process.
Annabel has been back to see Hilery – at a cost of about £30 a time – every six weeks in the past five years to get what she describes as an MOT. "And at home we all rely on homeopathic medicine. When I or one of the children [Amber, Charlie, 13, and Lily, 11] have a cold, we take pulsatilla [a native British flower]. And I always have handy some arnica for bruises, calendula for cuts and grazes, belladonna [not poisonous at this level of dilution] for a throbbing head, and nux vomica [a tree extract that contains traces of strychnine], which I take after the occasional over-indulgence. It gets rid of that 'uhhh' feeling in the morning."
When the family went to Thailand for a wedding, Amber suffered severe food poisoning. "I gave her arsenicum album, which worked very quickly. She went from throwing up all night to dancing at the party."
Annabel's husband, Mel Coleman, a 46-year-old former yachtsman and now businessman, is also a convert ("although he rarely gets more than minor ailments").
Annabel's most recent illness was a bout of tonsillitis; she took a remedy mixed by Hilery, and began to recover within an hour. "I'm passionate about homeopathy," she says. "I sing its praises at dinner parties where I find my audience is one half sceptical and one half increasingly curious."
And she backs the notion that homeopathy might be useful at Wimbledon. "I've used gelsemium in the past to calm my nerves before presenting Wimbledon, but it's possible it may also work for Andy. However, homeopathic remedies are designed to help with specific symptoms and Andy's may be different to mine."
As the patriotic money is on Andy Murray to win Wimbledon this year, perhaps we should follow Annabel's lead and stock up on nux vomica, the traditional cure after you've been celebrating too much, just in case.
* To find out more, visit www.healthroughhomeopathy.com
Aconite
"Perfect for when you are feeling fearful that something bad is going to happen, when you get into an agitated state, find yourself speaking too fast, or feeling cold," says homeopath Laura Kenyon from the Octagon Clinic (2 St Peter's Road, London W6 9BD, 020 8563 2608).
Belladonna
"Take when you've been sitting in the sun for too long and have a pounding headache."
Merc Sol
"Another remedy for when you've overdone the sun and are suffering the ill-effects."
Gelsemium
"Take it for performance anxiety; suitable for the players or the ball boys before their first outing."
Ignatia
"Usually, this is given when you're grief-stricken due to the loss of someone close, but it could work if Andy Murray gets knocked out and the nation is mourning."
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