When Annie Schwab went to Buckingham Palace to receive the insignia of the MBE from the Prince of Wales, she was determined that her outfit should include a pair of killer high heels. Unfortunately for Annie, it wasn’t a choice between Manolo Blahnik and Emma Hope but between sensible brogues and a trip to hospital for cortisone injections in her feet.
Annie suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and knows everything about the constant pain and the increasing disability that goes with it. It’s a condition that destroys the joints of the hands and fingers, sometimes the wrists, elbows, shoulders and feet. It was also destroying Annie’s career as one of Britain’s leading restaurateurs.She and her husband, Germain, a chef, run the Michelin-star winning Winteringham Fields near Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.
But three years after her award for services to the hospitality industry, Annie, 57, appears to have made a miraculous recovery, thanks to the bitter juice of a knobbly potato-like fruit from Tahiti called a noni.
Annie suffered her first attack of rheumatoid arthritis 11 years ago. Running a restaurant needs good health and endless stamina and the attack floored her. “I was totally out of it,” she recalls, “every joint in my body was swollen and painful.
“At first I went down the path of anti-inflammatories, steroids and cortisone injections, but they didn’t work. The joints in my fingers broadened and became gnarled like an old woman’s. I couldn’t hold a cup, I couldn’t even put my clothes on. Germain had to dress me. It affected my shoulders and neck so that I couldn’t sleep and the side-effects of the drugs meant I couldn’t eat either.”
Eventually the drug regime became too much. “I told my specialist I couldn’t go on,” she says. “Everything I took was having a negative effect, so I stopped. I came off all the drugs. He wasn’t happy. He told me the damage to my bones would be irreparable, that they would be distorted and I would be deformed. It was very depressing.”
Without the medication and the debilitating side-effects, Annie began to feel better. She put herself on a rigorous diet. While Germain prepared gourmet dishes, Annie existed on plain fish and vegetables. “With diet I could control the symptoms but I knew it wasn’t a cure,” she says.
She threw herself into work and tried to ignore the pain. She sat on committees, supported charities and ran the restaurant. Few of her customers were aware of the hell she was going through. “Running a restaurant is a performance, you are putting on a show every night. When people come for an evening out, they don’t want to know about your aches and pains, so I’d hide my hands and try not to show the limp.”
Annie battled on for nine years. “I tried every diet and every remedy going: reflexology, homeopathy, herbalism — I’ve done them all,” she says. But last year, feeling worn out and dreading that by 65 she would be incapable of anything, she went back to the specialists. As she feared, the X-rays showed increasing bone degeneration.
“They put me on a new drug but it made me really ill. I spent five days in hospital having it flushed out of my system,” she says. “Then, with no immune system, I developed shingles as well. I thought I’m just going to have to put up with the pain because there’s nothing out there for me.”
As Annie’s health deteriorated, in contrast, the restaurant flourished. By now she and her husband had two Michelin stars and Annie was appointed MBE, but she couldn’t stand the agony any longer. She announced her retirement and Winteringham Fields, the Schwabs’ life’s work, was put on the market.
Then, as the sale was progressing, Germain visited a part-time sports masseur in the local village for treatment for a painful shoulder. They got talking about Annie’s condition and he suggested noni juice. Noni (Morinda citrifolia) has been used in the Polynesian islands, for thousands of years as a tonic and as a boost to the immune system. Advocates claim it responds to a number of conditions, including arthritis, allergies, diabetes and obesity.
“I had heard of it but I thought it would be yet another potion that would end up at the back of a cupboard with all the rest,” Annie says. Nevertheless, when Germain brought some home after his visit to the masseur, Annie began taking it: two tablespoons of deep red juice, morning and evening.
“Nothing much happened at first but after five weeks I noticed my fingers were more flexible,” she says. “Then in the summer I went in a pool and found I could move my shoulders and then that I could swim. I thought it must be the buoyancy of the water at first but next day I could run down the stairs.”
Several months after starting on noni juice Annie’s life has been transformed. “The swelling has gone down, I can hold a cup and take lids off jars, I can dress myself and I can wear decent shoes. I’ve rejoined all the committees I had to resign from, I can travel again. We have taken the restaurant off the market and we are starting a programme of refurbishment.
“Arthritis doesn’t kill you, it takes your life away,” she says. “The pain takes over. Now I’m getting better and better. I’ve got my life back and Germain has got his wife back.”
And what of the hospital specialists? “They are waiting and watching with bated breath. They think this can’t be right,” she says with a laugh that has been a long time coming.
What is it?
NONI or Morinda citrifolia, to give it its botanical name, grows in tropical climates, particularly Tahiti and Hawaii, as well as India, Africa and the Caribbean. It is a small, evergreen shrub with dark-green shiny leaves bearing green, knobbly, potato-like fruits which mature to translucent white. The juice is puréed noni fruit with the addition of a small amount of grape juice to counteract the bitterness. In July 2003 the Food Standards Agency granted a licence for the sale of noni juice in the UK.
SUITABLE FOR Noni has been used as a tonic and a medicine in Polynesia, China and India for more than 2,000 years. It is claimed to help a variety of conditions including allergies, arthritis, asthma, some cancer symptoms, diabetes, heart and kidney diseases, multiple sclerosis and stress.
COST From £80 for four one-litre bottles.
CONTACT: Tahitian Noni International UK on 01908-847049; visit www.tni.com or e-mail reception@uk.tni.com
