Evelyn Davies' healing ministry is at home on the web

An online prayer room is part of Evelyn's ministry

Retired vicar and psychologist Evelyn Davies has turned her home into a refuge for people affected by serious illness and is reaching out to even more people through the internet.

Her bungalow, in a tranquil Criccieth garden overlooking the sea, is home to Bendith Fach (Little Blessings), a healing and listening ministry open to people of any faith or none.

But, with space at a premium, she also uses a website to offer support to as many people as possible.

"It's important because so many people in society live alone and haven't got the family support that we used to have in the old days," said Evelyn.

"At 2am - the worst time for people with a bad diagnosis - they can click on a prayer or write an email to me."

You can add a name to the Bendith Fach website and prayers are said every morning for those who want to be remembered.

"I see people from all denominations, those who haven't got a faith or who've lost it, but are coming to the end of their lives and would like to explore their spirituality again," she says.

She began her work 30 years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was given two years to live.

"When I had that devastating diagnosis, because of my faith, I said OK, I'll hand over to the Lord any time I've got left; and I'm still here!" she said.

Soon her husband's vicarage in Meifod, Powys, became a refuge for women who feared they might have cancer.

Traumatic

"I'd to say 'go to the doctor, take a friend'. But many couldn't, so in the end I would take them as far as the doctor's surgery and counsel them through all the issues afterwards.

"In those days, you had a radical mastectomy without any offers of reconstruction. It was very traumatic, especially for a young woman with children."

Evelyn continued her work when she and husband Paul moved to Pennant Melangell in the Berwyn mountains. When he too became ill with cancer, his dying wish was for Evelyn to build a more permanent centre.

The Melangell Centre she established is still there, although Evelyn left to become vicar at St Hywyn's Church, Aberdaron, in 2000. Since retiring from St Hywyn's she dedicated all her time to ministering to the sick and their families.

She moved to one of two Criccieth bungalows bequeathed to the church by holiday camp owner Billy Butlin.

With a small wooden chapel in the garden, a counselling room and a spare bedroom for those who wish to come on a retreat for a couple of days, Evelyn is kept very busy.

The carers and family need to get away and talk to someone who isn't emotionally involved Evelyn Davies

"It's quiet here. It's a place to come and cry; to release the tension and pent up emotion you're frightened to show in front of family," she said.

Evelyn will do laying on of hands, but her Anglican view of healing means she is not offering a cure.

"It's being able to be comfortable with the weakness of illness and taking away the stress, anger, pain and sensation of loss," she said.

"Sometimes, immediately a family member hears dad's got cancer and not expected to live more than year, they begin to look at him in a different way.

"They go into anticipatory grief while he's still there and it can spoil the last months of life when he should live to the full, and when they still need him."

So he ministry is not only for the person suffering from illness, she explains.

"Macmillan and Marie Curie nurses are so excellent in this area that often the patient is being looked after very well, but the carers and family need to get away and talk to someone who isn't emotionally involved.

"We sometimes have a day for carers where they can talk to others about feeling angry, stressed, guilty, and realise that someone else is saying the same thing, too. You're not alone."