"IT feels like life has been taken away from under your feet," said Wendy Edwards, describing what it was like to be diagnosed with breast cancer in January last year.

Within a couple of weeks, she had been referred to Dorset Cancer Centre's complementary therapies service, run by from a small room in Poole Hospital.

Therapists Jenny Vestey and Shelley Baker offer cancer patients sessions of hand and foot aromatherapy massage, Indian head massage, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and reflexology.

Their posts are jointly funded by the NHS and the Friends of Forest Holme, Poole's palliative care unit.

After her 4cm lump was found, historic environment consultant Wendy, 42, of Charlton Marshall, underwent chemotherapy.

"The hope was that it would shrink the tumour enough so I wouldn't need a mastectomy," she explained.

"The first chemo was a really scary time. You can have aromatherapy while you're on chemo. To have Shelley come was lovely - I was floating on the ceiling. What was potentially going to be a traumatic session was softened."

Last July, Wendy had an operation to remove the tumour, followed by radiotherapy.

More recently she has learnt EFT.

"It helps you deal with the emotional stress of cancer. You learn a technique which you can do at home and share with your family," she said.

"Some things you don't want to share with them - I've got two girls, and having a facility like this is not just about practical treatments. If you want to laugh, cry or talk, it's a safe place to do so. Quite often you need to do that away from home.

"I've made the most of what's on offer. It's given me a positive outlook that I can do something for myself. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are aggressive treatments. Coming in and getting complementary therapies is giving me some form of control."

In 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended that people affected by cancer should be offered a range of physical, emotional, spiritual and social support; and that people with advanced cancer should have access to a range of services to improve their quality of life.

The Dorset Cancer Centre provided complementary therapy out of NHS funding from the start more than 12 years ago, starting with aromatherapy, then reflexology.

The therapists usually start seeing people before or during their treatment.

EFT, which has been available for the last couple of years, is sometimes used to help people overcome needle phobia or "anticipatory nausea".

Six weeks after treatment has ended, they can have a four-week course of reflexology. "That's partly to act as a pick-me-up and also for emotional support, so they don't feel they've come to an end and there's nothing there," said Jenny.

"Sometimes they just don't want to see the place again, which is fine. We're here to offer complementary therapy, not force it down people's throats."

The service now operates five days a week, and lead cancer nurse Denise Lunn is keen to recruit some volunteer therapists to provide treatments out of hours and at weekends.

The department has already published research about the use of aromatherapy for lymphoedema, and Denise is keen for more to be carried out.

Shelley is one of only about 100 people in the country trained to use essential oils therapeutically.

The centre also has gentle yoga classes and something called 4x4 classes - four sessions held over four weeks, looking at complementary therapies, nutrition, counselling, relaxation and self-help techniques.

"One of the elements is the need to get people back into the community. Cancer is so intensive. People could have had two or three years treatment and become very dependent," explained Denise.

Jenny said: "The main emphasis is the self-help. It's what happens when the treatment is over. Then it really hits patients. They are supported so much through it, then they get to the end. They have this thing in their head: when will the cancer come back again?

"EFT works on the principle that you have a thought, then an emotion. If it's a nice thought, a nice feeling goes through your body. If it's a negative thought, there's a jarring in the system. What we do is neutralising it. The beauty of EFT is that people can go home and do it themselves.

"My greatest compliment is when someone feels they can move on and not have any supportive treatment. Then you think they can get on with their lives."