Wide interest in programme promoting holistic healing

Central Otago's first holistic education programme for cancer patients is drawing interest from healthy residents who want to reduce their risk of getting sick.

The Canlive Charitable Trust runs programmes based on holistic healing principles practised at the Ian Gawler Foundation near Melbourne, Australia, which can be used by cancer patients in conjunction with more traditional methods, such as chemotherapy.

The trust's first 10-week programme finished in Alexandra this week.

Twenty people had learnt about meditation, healthy eating, and positive thinking.

Trust chairman Stew Burt said it went "exceptionally well" and the next course would be an intensive eight-day live-in programme held near Wanaka in October, for which bookings had already been made.

Mr Burt said demand for a holistic course open to the public had also prompted an eight-week meditation class every Wednesday from July 23 in Alexandra.

Trustee Helen Brown, a cancer survivor, would take the classes from 10.30am to midday.

Meditation was regarded by some as the most beneficial way of reducing the risk of getting cancer, as well as a way for sufferers to increase chances of survival, Mr Burt said.

"Meditation can reduce the risk of getting cancer by up to 55%. It is the first thing patients are taught in our programmes."

The trust hopes to open a permanent facility near Cromwell or Wanaka next year to host programmes for cancer patients from throughout New Zealand.

"Already, we have had people travel every Wednesday from Invercargill and Lake Ohau."

Canlive was officially opened at a charity dinner in Alexandra on March 7, at which more than $20,000 was raised by diners and Central Otago residents.

The trust was founded by doctors and cancer survivors within the district.