The Women In Business Group invited Dr Patricia Ridsdale to speak at its April meeting, held at Centre Court Hotel in Basingstoke.

The subject matter, ‘conventional medicine versus homeopathy (or can they live and work in harmony?)’, proved to be an extremely popular topic judging by the packed audience at this event.

Tricia Ridsdale has worked as a GP in Hampshire for 14 years and has always been interested in the whole person and the dynamics of health. Tricia originally trained in Birmingham as a medical practitioner and she settled and worked for many years in Basingstoke. An opportunity arose a few years ago for her to expand her passion in exploring Homeopathy and to find more natural remedies to treat each individual person and their specific needs.

Tricia’s aim was to approach each person ‘holistically’ (i.e. the whole person) and sit their requirements alongside conventional medicine too.

The principle of Homeopathy is ‘like cures like’, using diluted plant substances to stimulate the body’s own method of healing. If you know what you are looking for, there are health stores on most high streets these days that sell homeopathic remedies. However, Tricia says there is no substitute for getting good, professional healthcare advice initially.

Between 14-16% of us today are taking a real interest in complimentary medicine and how it can help to treat our health and lifestyle issues and the number is growing all the time.

Tricia concluded,

It’s all about getting the balance right at the end of the day and having spent years training in both conventional and complimentary medicine, I firmly believe that the two can work very well in harmony together.

The rather patronising statement, “she can’t do much harm with water!”, commented by colleagues when Tricia embarked on her alternative quest, has proven to be wholly unfounded as her highly successful practice has shown.

(Dr Patricia Ridsdale (left) pictured with President of the Women In Business Group, Sue Brown.)

If you are interested in finding out more about Homeopathy, please visit www.trusthomeopathy.org.

For more information about the North Hampshire Women In Business Group, you can visit their website.

Basingstoke Web Agency, The Escape are running a free seminar for local businesses looking to increase traffic to their websites.

Seminar Date: 24th May :: 9.15am - 11.15am

The 90 minute session is designed for people with some knowledge of the web who are looking to increase their profile online and attract more web traffic to their website. The seminar covers:

• The concept of the social web
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and the fundamentals of optimising your website content for visibility
  • Ensuring your website says the right thing
  • Getting your website found in search engines
• Attracting relevant traffic to your website
• Social networking using ‘web 2.0′ sites

You can visit The Escape website for more information (and to reserve a place) on the Online Marketing Seminar

Archive website can be found on another server. This is a new website.

Due to high demand, Business Link are now running more clinics at more venues across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including Basingstoke. Designed for businesses with fewer than 10 employees, they are run by Business Link Advisers who specialise in the issues facing smaller businesses.The confidential sessions are available by appointment only, last one hour and are free of charge to owner managers of small businesses. Outcomes from sessions include advice, information or interpretation on the issues you have.

Your Business Link Adviser will discuss your needs and explore the opportunities available to you. Together you will consider the challenges you face and help identify the most appropriate way forward to improve the performance of your business. Business Link also may help you to develop an action plan and if necessary, support you in finding specialists who could provide further assistance for you and your business.

The Business Advice Clinics offer:

• Independent, impartial discussion and advice at no charge
• Research for further information
• Referral to internal and external contacts for assistance with all business matters
• Constructive analysis of your current and proposed plans

Your business will benefit from:

• Face to face discussion in an informal atmosphere with a qualified and experienced Business Link Adviser
• A ‘reality check’ for your current plans and ideas in relation to the business
• Help with interpretation of information you have researched already
• Help with identifying alternative solutions
• Assistance in finding appropriate contacts to help you with future plans

If you are interested in how Business Link could help your business, call them on 0845 600 9 006 to find out more and book your place on a FREE clinic. Or you can visit the Hampshire Business Link website.