A charity held its first health event of the year in Laxey at the weekend.

Without Wings, the Manx Autoimmune Arthritis Trust organised a ’complementary health fair’, at Laxey Working Men’s Institute on Saturday and featured a range of therapies which are available to both sufferers of chronic illnesses and to highlight some of the complementary health services the island has to offer.

The free event, which was open to the public, also highlighted the importance of ’self-care’ for people who are living with chronic illness, such as the many autoimmune arthritis manifestations.

Organiser Jaqueline Morrey-Grace said that the event succeeded in raising awareness for chronic illnesses and for the therapies on offer.

’There was a huge variety of therapies on offer, including reflexology, face yoga, massage, mindful meditation, craniosacral, healthy eating and acupuncture, to name just a few,’ said Jaqueline.

’We also had a "meet the counsellor" room, to promote our ever-evolving relationship with the Lisa Lowe Centre and our fully-funded counselling initiative. We really hope it was informative and useful for everyone who popped along. A huge thank you to everyone involved for making it such a great day.’

Without Wings will hold their next event on Tuesday, May 15, also at the Laxey Institute.

They will host a public Skype presentation by Charles Linden, who recovered from severe anxiety almost a quarter of a century ago, and went on to devise the Linden Method for Complete Anxiety Recovery.

More details on the charity and their forthcoming events are available from withoutwings.co.uk