About Ploughshares at the Fisher King Centre |
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1986-1997 Opened the first vegan organic restaurant, nominated for Vegetarian Restaurant of the Year. Contracted for large scale location catering events. Expanded to manufacturing of healthy convenience foods for national distribution 1988 Undertook research and development into the extraction of leaf proteins in partnership with a Devon farmer and a charity operating in the Third World. This food, derived from indigenous green matter, has a nutritional profile far exceeding that of meat, fish, eggs, beans or milk. This technology is being used today in Third World pilot schemes as a proven malnutrition solution. The project attracted national TV and radio coverage on the News, the BBC Food programme and the Natural History programme as well as gaining approval in an independent report funded by the Department of Trade and Industry 1992 Designed the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for non-animal and special diet cuisine in conjunction with the Hotel Catering Training Board. Since then Ploughshares has trained numerous individuals, professional chefs and organisations such as the Bristol Cancer Self Help Centre. 2000-2002 Contracted by Liverpool City Council to raise the nutritional status of children in care and secure units. 1998 to present Established the Fisher King Centre as a residential detoxification retreat centre. The first of its kind in the UK, the centre offers six day cleansing retreats working on digestive disorders and detoxification of the intestinal tract, liver and lymphatic systems. |
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The idea to create a detoxification clinic in Glastonbury was born when the Chairman of the International Colonic Association, Katherine Monbiot contacted me to say that she wanted to work with me after having read a health magazine article about what Ploughshares was doing. After having put our heads together we came up with the six-day residential ‘Cleansing for Change’ programme based on augmented Dr. Bernard Jensen protocols. It was a timely approach for me since I was desperate to recover myself after I had come to the end of a harrowing period when Ploughshares had reverted to swords and I discovered that the pendulum swings inexorably in all things. This was all the more poignantly brought home to me when Katherine’s timely approach all too soon became her untimely departure when in 1998 her life ended in a fatal accident. I was determined to honour her inspiration by finishing what we had started and by 1999 a new team was in place, most notably Araura Berkeley, who helped me get back on track and most ably stepped into the position of Colon Hydrotherapist par excellence. Since then the Fisher King Centre has attracted both a national and international clientele comprising, doctors, nurses, lawyers,a princess, therapists, teachers, entrepreneurs, writers, actors, composers, supermodels, life coaches and those whose lives are in transition ,and have come to realise that change is preceded by an qualitative overhaul of their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves. I can honestly say that I truly love my work, in the course of which I am often humbled and awed by my clients’ jaw dropping stories of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. I feel privileged to have been invited into the inner lives of many of my clients who have inspired me to keep promising my humanity. What’s in a Name?The Fisher King Centre, situated on the southern slopes of Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury, a place steeped in history from ancient times, draws its name from the Arthurian legends where the hill is sited as the location of the Castle of the Fisher King wherein Parsifal asks the Grail question that heals the wounded king and brings life back to his once devastated lands (whom does the Grail serve?). The answer is in the question for in the very asking the heart is raised from mere personal considerations to those of universal compassion. The hill, like a great salmon lying in the Somerset levels was once the sea and is the landing site of Joseph of Arimathea, who in AD37 sailed to Avalon bearing the cruets from the last supper. Having disembarked upon the hill, which was then an island, he planted his staff, which took root and grew into the Holy Thorn, which still flowers at Christmas. |