By Hollie Harris
In her recent novel, ’A Journey of Creative Healing’ Mary Atkins reveals how scientific research supports the program she undertook to help heal from grief and a profound illness more than 50 years ago.
This is the story about a young mother of two babies whose body began exhibiting signs that something was terribly wrong at the same time she suffered the tragic loss of her husband.
Newly diagnosed with aggressive Multiple Sclerosis, a virtually incapacitated Mary had to choose a new pathway for herself and her babies. She was able to make a remarkable recovery from the disease and re-write her story.
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Mary Atkins was a toddler when her family survived the bombing and loss of their home and everything they owned in the London blitz in WW11.
Her family became camp followers. Wherever her father, a captain in the Royal Artillery, was posted in England, they followed.
“I have memories of the woeful pulse of air raid sirens mixed with snatches of damp air raid shelters, a cupboard under the stairs that smelled of molasses, and tiered bunks in London subway stations, all of these provided a refuge for us as the armadas of planes droned overhead,” recalls Mary.
Because of the war, and her gypsy lifestyle, Mary’s schooling was non-existent. She grew up to work as a poor-second secretary to many unwitting employers until at age 20, her mother saw an ad in the paper for air hostesses and encouraged Mary to apply.
“The only qualification I had was ‘un peu’ school-girl French. So, with a wing and a prayer, I applied. Unbelievably, I was one of the chosen few who made it,” she said.
Air travel in the late 50’s and early 60’s was considered the golden age of flying and air hostesses were seen as minor celebrities.
“I loved every second in the sky, every new destination. But sadly, it was also the days when the airlines only wanted single women, so with my marriage came the end of my glamour days in the sky.
“I met Robert, an Australian dentist. We began a love affair complete with waltzing the streets of London, singing I could have danced all night.”
The young couple were married five years later and travelled the world together and crossing borders, dreaming of a large family.
Mary had begun show signs of an illness which they had related to sickly pregnancies with their two children.
“I had been plagued with weird episodes of muscular numbness or twitching, blurred vision and every now then. Occurrences were fleeting and so we did not worry.”
Two weeks before their second wedding anniversary Robert was tragically killed in a light plane crash.
“It was the worst of times. My grief overwhelmed me and I was exhausted from trying to manage two babies on my own. Life could not any worse, I thought.”
After Robert’s death her symptoms became more pronounced and within three years, Mary became incapacitated.
“When I was diagnosed my random symptoms, like pendulum waves, created the perfect event for the first and second opinions of what they called back then ‘aggressive’ MS and that I would be wheelchair bound within a very short time.”
She rejected treatment and acted upon her own powerful intuitive messages which were telling her to begin doing something creative every day.
Mary’s daily focus became planning something creative that she had never done before. From listening and embracing an opera or following it as she focused on the libretto, to a picnic with her children in a place she had never been to before, craft work, painting and decorating, cooking unusual dishes, journal writing and flower arranging all became Mary’s new daily rituals.
Anything which was about focus, fun and ritual of conception, planning, doing and being present slowly began to work its magic for Mary.
“I was extremely sick. Back then there was no drugs, no medication to help, so instead, I listened to my intuition.
“Through rest, meditation and focusing on a daily creative practice, I came back to full health. The only possible indicator that I had a severe illness was in my feet – peripheral neuropathy – a result of damage to nerves.”
Within twelve months, Mary could once again walk without aids and despite her prognosis, Mary was able to recover to full health.
Mary’s new journey through to the other side of illness and heartbreak was well under way and she was about to receive some good luck as well.
“The children and I were holidaying with friends in the Bahamas. On the first week of the holiday I met Peter, an English accountant working in Nassau and fell in love.
“We married within the year and our daughter was born in Nassau. Our little blended family embraced the privileged and bronzed expatriate life in Nassau for nearly five years.”
Life in the Bahamas changed them forever. After a short spell in the UK, Mary and Peter had decided they wanted to raise their children in Australia.
Juggling work and motherhood, newly immigrated Mary eventually rose through the ranks and became the national training manager of a large female sales team. She turned her back on the corporate ladder and returned to education becoming a home economist.
She began her own company which morphed from being an agency for food professionals to providing marketing, event and support services for the Australian food and wine industries. Mary’s business was instrumental in bringing innovative concepts and new life to marketing food and wine and organised events that linked small agricultural producers to high profile chefs.
“I trained food professionals to talk and cook at the same time and created opportunities for food professional students to showcase their talents,” she said.
Mary was always writing on the sidelines, continuing to unleash her creativity, writing recipes, food, and travel articles. At sixty-five, after twenty plus years of refining her skills as a trainer and speaker, she wrote her first book Finding Your Voice – 10 Steps to Successful Public Speaking.
Reviewers, including the Australian Financial Review, acclaimed the book as the definitive self-help guide to public speaking.
“After retirement, I wrote a biographical novel, Losing You, which tells the story of a young wife and mother’s complexity and courage in dealing with the loss of her husband.
“Today I have reinvented myself as a luxury cruise ship lecturer, enriching passengers’ adventures in the South Pacific and beyond. When I am not cruising, I am writing, researching and enjoying every minute of my life with Peter, family and the laid-back Queensland coast lifestyle.”
Her most recent book, ’A Journey of Creative Healing’ Mary’s message is clear – it is possible for people to recover from catastrophic illnesses, life-threatening illnesses.
“I want to ask – how open are you to possibilities, or still open after disappointment and more disappointment in learning to live with the disease?
“Over the years I tried to tell my story to people who suffered MS but their eyes glazed over, ‘yes, but … ’ So I stopped until I could prove the steps that I had taken ticked all of the scientific boxes.
“Read the New York best seller Radical Remission by Dr Kelly Turner. Visit the international Radical Remission Project Facebook page or website to see authenticated stories of people healing.
This March Mary received the privilege of being Radical Remission Project’s Healing Story of the Month.
“I know the disease is wretched but please don’t close down to possibilities. My story, like virtually all the stories in the Radical Remission Project records, was no ‘pick up your bed and walk’ miracle. It took time, resilience, focus and a powerful belief that I would recover from whatever ailed me.”
Mary has now been in remission from MS for 54 years.
