Hyacinth Goldsworthy of Ipswich, how visited The Garden of Wales and touched a sculptured that she believed temporarily cured her osteoarthritis.

IPSWICH: A pensioner, who for 30 years suffered crippling joint pain, claims her affliction was healed by a mythological statue.

For six weeks, Hyacinth Goldsworthy was free of the osteoarthritis that has plagued her since 1980 after coming into contact with the unusual sculpture.

The 72-year-old, from Bromley Close, Ipswich, was visiting the National Botanic Garden of Wales when she and a friend happened upon the Blodeuwedd guilding stone, named after the wife of a Welsh mythological hero.

“The trip was a treat for a friend who had survived cancer,” recalled retired teacher Ms Goldsworthy.

“I had been there before and had never seen this statue, but the guide said it had healing powers.

“We joked about it but I put my back on the statue and felt a strange sensation in my legs.”

Ms Goldsworthy thought nothing more of
the sculpture until leaving for the next leg of her holiday.

She said: “We were in Banbury, on the way to Stratford-upon-Avon, and I suddenly found I could
walk at a normal speed and stand up straight like I used to.

“We stopped somewhere else and I was half-running down a grass bank!”

The mother-of-two had not felt such improvement in 30 years of taking painkillers to ease what she called the “torture” of her condition, which meant even walking was at times agonising.

For another six weeks she was free of pain and only now feels the discomfort returning – albeit less severe than before.

“I hope to go back and have another go,” she said. “The painkillers make good sleeping pills but are not all that effective.

“I wonder whether other people have felt anything from touching the statue.”

Paul Kincaid, a faith healer’s son who sculpted the statue, was thrilled to hear Ms Goldsworthy’s story.

He said: “It’s fantastic. This is the first I’ve heard of it healing anyone but it’s quite extraordinary.

“There is a long tradition going back hundreds of years of things like this in Wales.”

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