In the second of a three-part series on Butterwick Children's Hospital - built in memory of the late Princess Diana following a Northern Echo campaign - Lindsay Jennings discovers how complementary therapies provide relaxation and relief from illnesses.

ONE imagines that Faye Stevenson doesn't show much sign of pain as she whizzes around in her wheelchair, blonde hair flying, as a member of the powerchair football England squad.

"It gets really, really competitive and I just want to win," grins the 17-year-old from Gateshead, who's the only woman on the team. "We'll be going to Japan to compete against teams across the world soon. I can't wait."

Faye is sitting in the colourful day care room at the Butterwick Children's Hospice in Stockton, and has been a regular since it first opened nine years ago. She has spinal muscular atrophy, a condition she was born with which affects the nerves in an area of her spinal cord, causing the muscles to become wasted or atrophied. And while her illness doesn't stop her enjoying her life, the complementary therapies available at the hospice provide welcome relief to the pain in her back and the difficulty which comes with her mobility.

"I normally have reflexology on my feet and massage on my back, which is really good, it really relaxes me and I love the smell of the lavender," says Faye. "It stops all the pain for a little while. As I get older and my body gets bigger, my muscles can't cope as well, but it shouldn't affect my life span and it doesn't stop me doing what I want to do."

Faye was eight years old when she first came to the hospice and sees it as a home-from-home. She has two able-bodied sisters, Anne, 15, and Beth, 13, and recognises her visits give the whole family a break.

"It means they can get time off as well so if they want to go away they can - anyway, I get sick of them too," she laughs. "But I respect their need to have time off. Everyone seems more chilled out when I go back home."

The woman partly responsible for Faye's relaxed state is Gwyn Featonby, head of complementary therapies at the hospice. Gwyn arrived as a nurse nine years ago, before the hospice doors even opened, and a grant was secured to develop a complementary therapy service, with 13 therapists now trained. In 1999, the service carried out 250 treatments throughout the organisation. Now they carry out 5,000 treatments per year.

"There are a range of benefits," says Gwyn. "We can offer something that people may not have the opportunity to try. Also, a child can have such complex needs that the parent may have to give up work and so they may not be able to afford the therapies.

"Here, the parents can have treatments too, so they can get a bit of time out and space. Lots of what we do with parents is about treating mechanical pain. They might have a child who's the size of a fully grown adult and the parent will have been lifting the child, causing a deterioration in their body. They can suffer from migraines or IBS (irritable bowl syndrome) which tends to be synonymous with stress, so you give parents a means to cope with that. It can be relaxing oils they burn at home or we teach them self hypnosis to use. We can even help with weight loss and smoking cessation."

It may seem bizarre that a hospice is helping parents with weight or smoking issues, but these can often be side effects of caring for a child with an illness.

"Especially young mums," says Gwyn. "Very often they stop at home with the child, they can't just go to the gym like parents of a healthy child and they can end up comfort eating, smoking or drinking. Then they can get into a cycle where their own health deteriorates. So we use hypnosis to help them try and deal with it. People might say 'isn't that putting the cart before the horse?', but a child can become tetchy if the parents are stressed, so if we help the parent then we help the child."

Part of Gwyn's role is to teach the carers to work with the children, so mums and dads can get involved at home too.

"Very often parents are stuck in a cycle of giving treatments like medicine so this gives parents something nice to do with the child," she says.

For the child, complementary therapies can help ease muscle spasms, combat dry skin conditions such as excema and manipulate joints.

"By getting the children to relax it can actually reduce their feeling of pain," says Gwyn. "We use natural plant oils and we understand the medicine that they're on so they don't interfere with any drugs.

"They can be given by massage or burnt in a room. We get a lot of girls with things like pre-menstrual tension and the boys can be quite frustrated by their conditions, so oils can be used to lift the mood. Other treatments include reflexology, reiki and Korean hand therapy, a form of acupuncture without needles."

One of Faye's favourite therapies is reflexology, where the feet are manipulated to correspond with a part of the body.

"It relaxes me, it's proper girly stuff which I love," she says. "It's amazing how it keeps the pain away for a while."

Faye is studying digital media at Newcastle College and is hoping to go on to university. She'll be flying over to Japan with the powerchair football England squad in October.

But when her life gets too hectic, she knows she can relax at the hospice and the complementary therapies play a big part in that.

"Even though I'm a normal person, people do see you differently when you're in a wheelchair, but in here you're all the same, no one's different," she says.

"I love the staying up really late, getting to go anywhere I want to go on trips. I get spoilt rotten, and I love the therapies. It gives you the freedom and a chance to do normal things."

* To make a donation to the hospice log onto www.butterwick.org.uk or contact 01642-607748.