Helping the women that the NHS cannot help

Si happy to have you here!! Let me introduce myself.

I am Abi Fernandez,

a Musculoskeletal Nurse Consultant,

Women's Health and Pelvic Floor Specialist Nurse

and Advanced Holistic Practitioner and Bodyworker.

I have been working in healthcare for 20 years already. 15 of those, I have spent not only working full time, but also as a full time student!

Yes, hard work, but it has paid off because now

I can help you in ways no one else can!

It's not only the vast education, knowledge and experience. What I teach and do is very personal to me because since the age of 7 I struggled with severe pain myself.

I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia when I was very young.

The chronic pain and overwhelming fatigue had me bed-bound for weeks and months at a time in my teens.

On top of that, I suffered from

incontinence,

hormonal issues,

anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Despite being a healthcare professional myself, I was feeling so ill and living in my body was so draining, unsafe and excruciating,

that I ended up trying to take my own life 10 years ago.

That unfortunate turn was enough to trigger this amazing journey that has already helped hundreds of women, not just me!!

Learning about, trauma, mind and body connection and the nervous system opened my mind to new ways of healing and new treatment approaches.

But no one was offering them!!

I started becoming very aware of the things that were not working in the system, and the unmet needs of my patients at work too.

I remember crying to one doctor one day saying

"I cannot discharge one more woman and send her home crying in pain without answers and solutions, I just can't"

He thought that it was enough that we ruled out anything life threatening.

It was not enough for me. Because I was one of those ladies myself.

From that moment, seeking help stopped being an

"asking for help" issue,

and became a "I'm going to fix myself" issue

I had had enough of simply sitting in the corner

waiting for the NHS to help me.

By that time I had met dozens of consultants and different doctors and professionals, and over the years as a frustrated patient (and as a nurse too, of course) I learnt something:

- Women's Health is neglected...

- Specialists and healthcare providers don't talk to each other. Each of them treats only the little bit of your issue that is relevant to their field, they only focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time and no one looks at the overall picture...

- The western medicine system lacks a holistic approach as well as the time to assess and listen to their patients and the skills and knowledge to make sense of many musculoskeletal issues...

For the last 10 years I had been studying to breach those gaps and make sense of the things that the NHS cannot make sense of.

I have created my very own system and therapeutic approach in which I see the body as ONE whole piece.

All the systems, symptoms and complaints are assessed and addressed.

You can read more about my approach HERE

After fixing my own health problems myself,

I started helping others do the same and live the life THEY DESERVE.

One of happy walks with the family without fear of pain, one of laughter without leaks, a life of freedom, activities, choice and love.

A life where women have a right to a better health.

I started my mission of educating women in order to empower them and give them tools to look after themselves, help them advocate for their own bodies and help them get free of those issues that can be fixed.

It is not about education only, I also offer pro bono sessions in my treatment room.

I am creating a charity in order to grow this vision, because this is what I do professionaly in my clinic full time, but I believe that women should receive this high quality health care free of charge!!!

That is why I carve time from my daily workload to give for free to the women in the community.

While the charity project continues to move forward, 160+ people have benefited from the free clinics in April and May!!

100+ have enjoyed Free Educational Talks.

>>> These talks help reduce the gender health-gap in the UK and its different types of health bias against women to stop them from being mistreated, misunderstood and misdiagnosed.

>>> In these events I share with the women in the community, they can understand their rights and how to demand better services and advocate for themselves and their bodies.

>>> They also help increase Health Promotion within women in the community in the benefit of all women, also the younger generations by creating awareness about women’s health issues and the options women have available to them. These free talks, workshops and educational events are mostly related to sexual health, pelvic health, pregnancy and postnatal health, menopause, arthritis and chronic pain, not only when the problems are there, but also before they arise.

5 women (and 2 men) have benefited from Free Telephone Consultations.

>>> This is a service where women can ask for help and where they are believed and their experiences are not dismissed or diminished.

>>> A service where women are being taken seriously and get free liaison support to receive appropriate tests, treatment and referrals without delay.

>>>It works as a private enabling and advocacy service where women can get information to understand their individual needs and receive free guidance and support to successfully communicate with their healthcare providers without fear, pressure or lack of understanding.

>>> In most cases I also end up performing free mediation tasks to liaise between women and healthcare providers when extra support is needed, talking to GP's, Consultants and sending reports and referrals.

40+ have join free online courses and downloaded free guides.

>>> These provide great tools to educate people about their bodies but also give very practical tools for them to change things at home.

8 women and 2 men attended face-to-face sessions.

>>> The last one attending had been in pain for 30+ years. Severe pain of 9 out of 10 at times. No one had been able to help her, but after our session together she finally managed to put her shoes on comfortably, stopped feeling pain and went home with loads of tips to continue improving.

>>> The goals of these sessions is to reduce disability within the women in the community by providing the successful pain assesment sthat the NHS is failing to provide for women.

>>> To provide a thorough assessment and high quality treatment for pain and chronic health issues in one single place, where a holistic, bespoke, integrated and evidence-based approach is used and where the body is seen as one. A person-centred service where women can receive the complete treatment approach recommended by the current guidelines at once and they go home knowing exactly what they need to do to continue improving.

>>> It's not only about pain. Most of the people I see refer to be frustrated, tired, sad, annoyed, unhappy, angry... These sessions help improve well-being and quality of life within the women in the community, by providing education that also impacts their mental health, mood and empowers them to take new action.

>>> These sessions are for those who have lost hope in the possibility of recovery and need someone to show them the light at the end of the tunnel.

>>> The goal is also to provide high quality postnatal check-ups as well and pelvic floor health checkups at any stage in life to reduce the prevalence and incidence of faecal and urinary incontinence, prolapses or painful sex or to receive relevant, professional guidance if this hasn't been given by the NHS or while awaiting to be seen by the NHS if a referral has been made but the woman is still waiting.

>>> In these long sessions people receive clarity on their diagnosis, personalised advice and a plan to go home with, as well as referrals of needed.

✨Loads of beautiful and magical things are happening already. Can't wait to the Charity up and running to start getting official funding and donations to be able to increase the reach and impact in the community.

Until now, for the last 15 months, I have been funding these services myself, investing up to £2k/month.

At the moment, since the beginning of the financial year in April I have increased the hours I dedicate to charitable services and the more help I offer, the more help I get asked for.

If I want to maintain and grow these services over the summer, I need funding from others too, because in order to help more women I need to give up time that I now dedicate to my private patients, and being the sole provider in the household I can't simply continue to cut hours from work and give up more income in the benefit of the community.

If you believe in my work, support my mission and my vision and want to make it possible for me to help HUNDREDS more free of charge, donate some funds so I can spend more time with those that the NHS cannot help.

If you want to see first hand what I do, feel free to send me a message, it'll be a pleasure to meet up!

To read more about the amazing impact of my work during the last year 2023-2024 and the motivation behind this mission, you can n dispar and read my

Last Impact Report & Corporate Social Responsibility

Thank you so much in advance for joining forces to help other women in need!