Cathy's Healing Hands!

The Casualty legend loves to practise her healing powers on family and friends…

- Sue Crawford

She’s spent the best part of 30 years playing Casualty’s warm-hearted nurse Duffy – but it’s not just on-screen that Cathy Shipton is a dab hand at dishing out healing advice.

The actress has always had a keen interest in fitness and health – few people know that she is actually a qualified aerobics instructor. But over recent years she’s also developed a passion for homeopathy and alternative medicines, so much so that her Casualty colleagues jokingly nicknamed her Witchy-poo.

“I’d say, ‘Try this and see if it works,’ and they’d go, ‘oh my God, my cough has gone,’ or ‘my headache has gone,’” Cathy says. “I can also do acupuncture and I can get rid of people’s headaches with acupressure.

“My mum had a crushed pelvis and I gave her Symphytum and Arnica, and she was up and about and walking, and lived five years after her crushed pelvis. Doctors couldn’t believe it. I can do all sorts!

“I should trace my ancestry, because Old Mother Shipton was a white witch who lived in Knaresborough in the 15th century, so I don’t know if we were related.”