Health and Welfare

North of Scotland Friends of ARMS
Action for Research
Centre Contact Number 01955 604586

Wick M S Therapy Centre
Postal Address Braehead Centre, 37 Smith Terrace
Wick, Caithness
Postcode KW1 5HD
Telephone 01955 604586

Picture of ARMS Building

WHO- WHERE- WHAT- WHY????

We are a self-help group, and a registered charity. As a limited company we provide audited accounts and are members of the Scottish Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centres.

Locally we are affectionately known as "arms" or "E  Braeheid" and that is where we are situated, at the Braehead building in Smith Terrace, Wick- where we overlook Wick harbour from an ideal base of comfort and warmth.

When we came into being, it was as part of a movement, to provide a therapy called Hyperbaric Oxygen or HBO and fund ongoing research into MS-hence Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis, and as a group, we were members (friends) of the now defunct national charity ARMS.

Now, having retained the name and being founder members of the Scottish Federation, we feel that we need to re-establish our identity.

Membership and use of the facilities at the Braehead are FREE and we do NOT advocate nor promote the use of any one therapy for getting involved.

Getting involved can be as simple as having you’re own space and time to have, say a special meeting of like minded sufferers with " particular symptoms " & have someone in to talk about that particular area of problems and symptoms. Indeed careers equally need support and if the best available is self help, why not help your selves with the use of this building as a support base?

We welcome any that can use and gain benefit from the Braehead, even if it is only to have a quiet moment and help your self to a cuppa.

Self-help works best with the involvement of others and if ANYBODY affected by Multiple Sclerosis, be it a sufferer, family member or other wishes to make use of "e braeheid" as a meeting point for discussion or support then WELCOME.

HBO as a therapy over the last twenty years has expanded twofold:

1. The range of conditions for which it is used has increased- details can be obtained from the above.
2. The controversy surrounding its benefit to Multiple Sclerosis patients has also been increasingly confusing and negative. This at a time when other regimes, or two drugs in particular which are being promoted, are either too expensive or in the "grey" area of legality.

Without contributing to any argument I can only speak as I find, yes many others and I have found sufficient benefit to maintain the use of HBO for many years. I am not cured but it helps a little and to be honest I know as many that felt insufficient improvement or non- and no longer uses it.

But NONE were the worse for trying and those of us who did maintain benefit, started its use early in the diagnosis of MS.

Further information and availability can be obtained by contacting Wick(01955 604586)

A medical advisor is available to the Federation for anyone who wish to speak to him on any aspect of HBO, or wish to have someone medically qualified to talk too on their  behalf.