Dumfries firm helping people back to health celebrates second year in business

A Dumfries-based firm is set to celebrate its second year in business next month in helping people of all ages, from athletes to senior citizens, back to health.Just Breathe 02, a community interest company launched in March 2022, has a space age-looking hyperbaric chamber which uses oxygen to treat patients with a wide variety of ailments and speeds up their recovery.

Owner 42-year-old Beth Morrison, from Castle Douglas, is delighted with the success of the company and hopes to help others who aim to grow in the region.She said: “At the moment I am the only one in the Dumfries and Galloway area doing this but there are other ones about to pop up as the knowledge is growing which can only be good.“I work with clients who have anything from MS, ME, chronic fatigue, asthma, cancer, leukaemia, broken bones, sports injuries, skin diseases so it is a wide area.“I am also working with Long Covid patients.

But I also stress that it is not a cure. It helps them after treatment. For instance, the NHS is piloting a trial on patients who had Long Covid and I am seeing a few now and one man is doing really well.”The treatment with hyperbaric chambers originally began in the deep sea diving industry to deal with decompression sickness, also called barotrauma or the bends.It was caused by a rapid decrease in the pressure by air or water and occurred most commonly in scuba or deep-sea divers.Now by entering the hyperbaric chamber for an hour and receiving oxygen it can speed up the healing process of an injury.Beth’s clinic is tucked away at The Arena in the shadow of Queen of the South’s Palmerston football ground and she struck up a deal with the club to rent her venue there.She said: “I have a deal with the club and players use the