THE March meeting began with an interesting talk by local acupuncturist Emma Guy. Emma originally became interested in acupuncture after being successfully treated herself. She explained that acupuncture works on the principle that any pain or illness that affects your body is because your ‘qi’ (pronounced Chee) or ‘energy’ has been disturbed.

In Chinese medicine your ‘qi’ can be disturbed by seven basic emotions which are joy, grief, sadness, fear, anger, fright and worry. Acupuncture, therefore, is aimed at rebalancing the ‘qi’ and thereby healing the imbalance in these emotions.

It involves the insertion of very fine needles, usually no thicker than a human hair, into the body to stimulate acu-points along various channels or meridians, for example the lung, large intestine, bladder and heart channels.

The tiny needles were passed around for members to see and one member volunteered to have one inserted in her hand in the lower intestine channel.

Emma trained in Bath at The Healing and Acupuncture College and is now a member of the Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture UK and practices in her own Northwich clinic where she says she uses ‘traditional Chinese methods with a modern twist’.

She is soon off for further training when she starts a Masters level qualification which involves a trip to China to study at a world renowned centre for the study of acupuncture.

The business part of the meeting discussed the activities of the various groups. There will be a quarterly lunch, at The Plough in Whitegate.

The darts team are getting ready to defend their title of ‘Group Champions’, which they have held for the last two years, in the upcoming competition. 

The new gardening club will hold its first meeting to coincide with the start of the gardening season.

The guest speaker for the next meeting will be Willie Sarson on crystal dowsers, on Wednesday, April 1.

If you are interested in coming along to this or any WI activities, visitors and new members are always very welcome.

We have a varied programme of events arranged for the year plus other regular activities, including craft workshops, a book club, quarterly lunch group, soup and sandwich, walking group, garden club (new for 2015), bowling team, darts team, Cheshire Show entry team, cinema and theatre trips and trips to local places of interest.

For more details, check out our website www.whitegatewi.weebly.com or contact Alison on 01606 888359.