Alison has had a rich and varied career, which has taken her from the Met Police, to the House of Lords and from Marks and Spencer to spiritual healing.  She is also extending a very kind offer to all of our medical alumnae who have been under so much pressure since the start of Covid.  Read on to find out more details.

She tells her own story here:- “When I left LEH in 1978, with A Levels In French, German and Russian, I knew that I wanted a retail management career, ideally with Marks and Spencer. From the age of 17 I had started working for M&S at their Kingston store during the holidays and on Saturdays. I loved it there. My retail management career came true; along with some real surprises and experiences that I never anticipated at the age of 18!

My lovely Dad was ill throughout my teens and his health declined significantly while I was taking my A Levels. I decided to change my plans at the last minute and stay local so did a four-year degree in Business at Kingston. On so many levels this turned out to be the right decision. Dad died during the beginning of my degree.

Although the change in degree was for personal family reasons, I loved studying for my business degree, which included two six-month employment placements in years two and three. For my first placement I did management training with Marks and Spencer. I spent my second placement working for a firm of solicitors who specialised in criminal law. My role included going to court supporting solicitors and barristers as well as interviewing our ‘clients’ in prison as we prepared their cases for court. I interviewed the full range of criminals from thieves to murderers.

I actually got my first piece of personal safety advice from the leader of a gang of East End bank robbers who were up at The Old Bailey! He had heard that one of my interviewees had tried to smash a table over my head during the interview. This was true and the man was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. The bank robbers had a strict code of never hurting women (note to self; useful to know if I ever meet you in a bank!). They gave me excellent advice on dealing with potentially violent situations that included trying not to act like the victim in such situations as many criminals feed off that energy. Many years later I was to use this advice to good effect.

When I graduated, I decided I wanted to broaden my experience and initially worked in several administration management roles at The Law Society of England and Wales.

I also held a variety of management roles with The Biochemical Society Group ultimately becoming their Group Head of HR and Corporate Affairs for the three companies as well as Company Secretary for The Biochemical Society. During my time there I was part of the team that set up a new venue company and handled the business development for that. I also organised events myself including receptions and dinners in the Houses of Parliament. It was also through this employment that I was invited to the Prime Minister's HR for Business Event, the St James Palace event as well as The Dignity at Work Bill presentation.

Back to M&S. My favourite appointment with Marks and Spencer was that of Commercial Manager in their flagship store Marble Arch. I had fantastic management colleagues; we worked hard and played hard together. We also used to receive many visits from the M&S Board who at the time were based down the road in Baker Street; I learnt so much from those wonderful Directors.

I loved the bustle of Marble Arch. However, the company started to regionalise stores and Edgware Road store came under the wing of Marble Arch. A high shrinkage level at Edgware Road store led to me being moved there with a team to investigate. We discovered the problem was staff theft and dealt with the matter.  The shrinkage level reduced.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to go to Edgware Road as I loved being at Marble Arch and being in such a large store so much. However, my Edgware Road move was a steppingstone to my police involvement, which would not have happened had it not been for that move.

An incident occurred at Edgware Road that shook me to my core. The security team had apprehended a shoplifter and were bringing him back into the store. However, the shoplifter ‘kicked off’ and tried to attack the security guards, who pushed him to the floor and restrained him there. A tall well-built man went up to this mound on the floor and pulled out a large knife. I was called as the manager to deal with this situation and when I arrived on scene this man was about to stab my security team.

As a person, I wanted to run out the back door. As the manager I knew I had to stay and lead the store out of this situation. I started talking to the knifeman, remembering the words of the bank robbers about not showing my fear and being a victim. After about five minutes, the knifeman looked behind me. Bless them, all the male staff in the store were standing behind me. The Warehouse Manager was by my side and told me they would do whatever I needed them to do to resolve this situation. The knifeman left the store, just a few minutes before police arrived. Nobody was injured.

A few weeks later, after I had had some time to process this incident, I decided that we were never going to go through such an incident again. Paddington Green Police Station was diagonally opposite the store, and I made contact with the local Inspector. We started to work closely with the police, set up a Business Watch for the Edgware Road and offered personal safety training for store staff.

One thing led to another, and I ended up working closely with the police in several London boroughs on community matters. I have helped on a full range of crimes, including murder and the 7/7 bombings. On 7/7, I was working down the road from the location of the bus bomb. I heard and felt the vibration of the bus bomb go off that day and found myself inside the police cordon for most of the day. Incidents like that cause community tensions and for the next year I helped police calm those local tensions. I have had so many interesting and varied experiences with the police, from going out in response cars and, as part of a multi-agency operation, helping young teenagers shooting up heroin in car parks get the help they needed to come off drugs, that there is not enough space here to cover them all. 

And so, to my healing journey and the present day.

The year was 1993. It was the year when I moved into a new flat and met Spiritual Healers for the first time. A lovely husband and wife team, who were my new neighbours, and had trained to be healers at The Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary. At that stage I had not experienced healing and had neither positive nor negative thoughts on the subject.

Fast forward to 2005. A routine blood test for my wonderful Mum revealed a dangerously high potassium level and she had to go to hospital. Mum was taken to resus where the medics eventually stabilised her heart rate after some seven hours. She had suffered acute renal failure. Mum was moved to a high dependency ward and was expected to need dialysis. I accepted my healer neighbours’ offer to start distant healing, both for Mum and for myself as her carer.

At various times in the day, both Mum and I could feel surges of positive warm energy that made her feel healthier and me feel that I could cope with the situation at hand. When I checked back with my neighbours, the timings they sent us distant healing matched with the times we felt these surges! Mum’s kidneys started working again – something the consultants did not expect to happen. She lived for a further 13 years – and never went on dialysis. Spiritual Healing had now got my attention.

In 2014 Mum’s health was not in a good way due to advancing years and I decided to take a career break to become her full-time carer for the remaining four years of her life. Juggling the number of hospital appointments, tests, and treatments (which I needed to take her to) with a full-time job was just not viable.

So, I joined 4 Boards as a Non-Executive Director/Trustee, including becoming a Trustee at The Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary! The nature of the Board work was such that I could fit it around the medical requirements, doing a lot of it at home, where I could keep one ear to the ground open checking Mum was ok. I felt this was a good way to keep my hand in business and keep myself current. My neighbours would continue to give Mum healing during this period, and on so many occasions, Mum’s consultants were surprised with the stability in her condition that had been achieved.

Fast forward to 2023. I am now a qualified healer myself - and work on the staff at the Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary as a Director! Indeed, I did my two year healing course and panel exam here. Dedicated to promoting health and wellbeing through our spiritual healing service, the Sanctuary was established by world-renowned Spiritual Healer Harry Edwards over 76 years ago and is a registered charity.

We help people and animals when they are ill, stressed or simply in need of some relaxation and regenerative ‘Me Time’. We have 86 fully qualified and insured spiritual healers. The Sanctuary is a member of UK Healers.

Spiritual Healing is one of the oldest and most natural forms of non-invasive support for wellness of the body. It is very similar to Reiki. Our body is surrounded by an energy field that can become unbalanced when we are unwell physically, emotionally, or mentally. A healer is a conduit for energy from the universal source through their hands and into the client. This allows the energy field to rebalance, which in turn may ease the client’s symptoms.

Healing can be given for peace and relaxation, any illness, stress, or injury as a therapy. It is completely natural, holistic, has no side effects and is complementary to your medical treatment. Healing can often help with mental wellbeing and with the effects of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Equally, you do not need to be ill to benefit from healing – the relaxation it can create is conducive to maintaining good health. Healing can help everyone and is suitable for all ages and can:

•             Aid better sleep

•             Accelerate the body’s self-healing abilities

•             Help you to stay well if you care for someone else with a health issue.

I would like to finish with an offer. The last few years have seen NHS front-liners working under incredibly stressful conditions. We are offering these wonderful people free one day retreats at the Sanctuary. We have already helped teams from Intensive Care and Air Ambulance to unwind on these days. If you work in the NHS and would be interested in a one-day retreat for yourself and/or your staff/colleagues, please do get in touch: Alison.McWhinnie@burrowslea.org.uk.

Finally, regardless of whether we were at LEH at the same time or not, please also get in touch if you would like to pop round for a coffee at The Sanctuary. It would be lovely to see you!

With very best wishes

Alison McWhinnie

www.harryedwardshealingsanctuary.org.uk .