SHE was virtually a prisoner in her own home because of the crippling pain in her hips. But 80-year-old Mary Tuck is now enjoying a new lease of life after finding a new way to puncture the pain.

For the Bournemouth pensioner who suffers with bursitis – an inflammation of the fluid-filled sac that cushions movement between the bones – now has regular acupuncture treatments.

“People might think I’m a crackpot but I think it’s wonderful,” she says. “I can walk to the shops now for the first time in years.”

Mary used to have regular steroid injections in her hips until fears about the long-term side effects on her health caused her to explore some alternative health therapies.

“It was my daughter who suggested acupuncture and I was terrified at first,” she admits. “I just couldn’t relax but I thought I just had to give it a go and I’m so glad that I did because when I got up off that bed after the first treatment I couldn’t believe how good I felt. I felt like a spring chicken!”

Mary has her weekly treatments at the Wessex Healthy Living Centre in Southbourne – a non-profit-making organisation established in 1977 to provide a range of complementary and holistic therapies at discounted prices.

Practice manager Lorna Evliyaoglu says that because acupuncture will no longer available on the NHS it means that people like Mary can still afford these types of treatments.

Mary adds: “I’ve since had acupuncture for my tennis elbow and on my face. Occasionally you feel a needle going in but it doesn’t hurt.

“It is much better for you to try a more natural remedy. I just hope it will give people more confidence to come and try it – they won’t regret it.”

Latest research has revealed that acupuncture has a better success rate in relieving pain than conventional treatment. Scientists found it can reduce pain and improve mobility in arthritis patients by 40 per cent.

Acupuncture, which originated in China more than 2,000 years ago, is based on the idea that energy, or qi, flows along channels (meridians) in the body.

Dr John Guan, who has been practising this ancient therapy for 24 years and visits the centre in St Catherine’s Road every week, says illness and pain occur when qi cannot flow freely.

“By stimulating these channels at precise points we can re-establishe the free flow of qi to restore balance and trigger the body’s natural healing response. It can be used to treat a wide range of conditions from aches and pains to stress, depression and IBS.”

A spokesman for the British Acupuncture Council explains that meridians can become obstructed in much the same way as a trapped nerve or blocked artery.

“This can be for any number of reasons such as emotional and physical stress, poor nutrition, infection, or injury.”

A modern explanation for how acupuncture works is that it influences the body’s electromagnetic fields.

The number of qualified acupuncture therapists in the UK has grown from a mere handful in the 1970s to more than 2,500 registered with the BAC.