The first Complementary Therapy awards celebration lunch was held on 18 October 2018 at the Cumberland Hotel, London. With an opening address from Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the College of Medicine, it was attended by guests, finalists and supporters from across the world of complementary therapy in the UK to celebrate the inspiring achievements of therapists working to improve patient health and well-being.

The overall winner of these new awards, developed in association with the Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT), was The Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust, which supports cancer patients and their families by providing funds to employ complementary therapists (healers) in the NHS and Hospices. The Trust emerged as the overall winner as it set out a very clear model of how to introduce complementary therapy into mainstream healthcare and keep it there.

In particular it addresses a major obstacle to the spread of complementary therapy into mainstream healthcare – lack of funding. Several other finalists made mention of the charity as an important step on their road to integration. Brittany Spence, chair of the British Complementary Medicine Association (BCMA) and Tracey Smith of the Association of Reflexologists presented the Award for cancer care to Angie Buxton-King, director of the Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust for her work providing healing in hospitals and hospices.

The charity donates funds to NHS cancer centres and hospices to employ practitioners of Reiki and Healing who are often then taken on by the NHS.

The Award was presented to the Trust’s director, Angie Buxton-King by Dr Michael Dixon. The judges commended their overt purpose – to put a healer at the bedside of every cancer patient, and their clear set of replicable steps that could be adopted by other therapies.