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Sun ray treament

angeleyes said:
did any of you encounter this i did at the clinic in john bright st. i used to have to go once a week to sit in front of some sort of heater with goggles on. and be stripped to the waist. i dont know from that day to this why i had this. i never will now because my mom and dad are know longer here.
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Hi angeleyes welcome , I had that sunray treatment at a clinic in Woodcock St just past the central fire station in town , the medics thought that with my pale complexion I may have been anaemic so I went for treatment a three day spread over three weeks . I sat there as good as gold goggles on shirt off staring at this UV lamp my that room had a very strange smell . It couldn't have been anything serious I'm still a bit pale so I must have lost the tan ,if ever there was one over the years . Hope this helps John
 
I remember going to Sunray treatment sessions whan i was young. We would all sit round a bright lamp with goggles on. My Mom told me it was because i had nightmares and it would help. I was an anxious child.
 
Brian60 said:
Astonian, I did not personally experience sun ray treatment. I was just commenting on the thread because I was surprised that it was used as late as the 1960s and perhaps 1970s.

I dont know how effective it was. Sunlight produces vitamin d so I guess if a person was low on this vitamin, the treatment would help. Extreme deficiency in vitamin d can cause rickets.

This sun ray treatment also used to be used as a treatment for skin conditions.

Reading through the postings on this thread it looks like it was used for a wide range of illnesses and for pale skinny kids.

Sun ray therapy, of sorts, is still used e.g. special lamps are used to treat psoriasis and S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) lamps can even be bought in Argos stores.

These days doctors warn us about the risks of skin cancer from sun tan lamps so I cant see this treatment coming back anytime soon.
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I remember going to Sunray treatment sessions whan i was young. We would all sit round a bright lamp with goggles on. My Mom told me it was because i had nightmares and it would help. I was an anxious child. I am really not sure because my Mom wasn't/isn't always the most honest person. I wonder if she got paid for taking me to the experiment?
 
Charmaine Jay said:
I remember going to Sunray treatment sessions whan i was young. We would all sit round a bright lamp with goggles on. My Mom told me it was because i had nightmares and it would help. I was an anxious child. I am really not sure because my Mom wasn't/isn't always the most honest person. I wonder if she got paid for taking me to the experiment?
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Where did you have your treatment and can you remember the year.
 
i have had a few melinomas removed from my chest and back i was told it was through being sun burned.
it made me wonder,if there is any conection between them and the torcher lamp132489
 
angeleyes said:
did any of you encounter this i did at the clinic in john bright st. i used to have to go once a week to sit in front of some sort of heater with goggles on. and be stripped to the waist. i dont know from that day to this why i had this. i never will now because my mom and dad are know longer here.
Click to expand...
I had this treatment in the mid 1950’s at Maas Road Clinic Northfields. I remember it exactly as you recall but also remember a very distinctive smell. I was a very thin child and I think the treatment was because of this - maybe rickettsia or failure to thrive as it would be called now maybe
 
HELLO and welcome to the Forum Yvonne B. it was the smell of ozone. I was anemic. and the lamp never did a thing only burnt me.
 
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mw0njm. said:
HELLO and welcome to the Forum Yvonne B. it was the smell of ozone. I was anemic. and the lamp never did a thing only burnt me.
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Thank you. I’ve always wondered what the smell was. I don’t think the treatment helped me. I had very pale skin and couldn’t tolerate the sun so it beggars belief why i had this done to me
 
For much of the first half of the twentieth century, phototherapy or “sun ray” therapy was prescribed for children for a wide range of maladies, from chest infections to anemia. At the same time, concerns mounted over the link between exposure to ultraviolet light and skin cancer.

By the 1960s, antibiotics and alternative treatments rendered sun ray therapy obsolete for most purposes. Targeted ultraviolet light is still used today for some skin disorders, and other types of non-ultraviolet light treatments are used to treat mood and sleep disorders.
 
mw0njm. said:
HELLO and welcome to the Forum Yvonne B. it was the smell of ozone. I was anemic. and the lamp never did a thing only burnt me.
Click to expand...

I too remember being part of this ‘experiment’ when I was a child. Like others I can remember
taking part and sitting in front of the lamp along with that distinctive smell that other posts have mentioned.

For years I have wondered about this and have Googled it but not knowing the
name was unsuccessful until a chance remark made by my work colleague about this practice today
and what it was called.

I’m sure it was in Sheepcote street or Sheep Road, or something or other like that in Birmingham.

I can remember sitting in front of the light and wearing goggles like in the photographs.

After reading numerous post by people who have experienced this finally casts some light over my experience and that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination

It would also possibly explain why I catch the sun so easily and why my arms seem to
have a light permanent suntan all year round.

I would be interested to know of any groups if there are any. Thanks
 
Mr Mark said:
I too remember being part of this ‘experiment’ when I was a child. Like others I can remember
taking part and sitting in front of the lamp along with that distinctive smell that other posts have mentioned.

For years I have wondered about this and have Googled it but not knowing the
name was unsuccessful until a chance remark made by my work colleague about this practice today
and what it was called.

I’m sure it was in Sheepcote street or Sheep Road, or something or other like that in Birmingham.

I can remember sitting in front of the light and wearing goggles like in the photographs.

After reading numerous post by people who have experienced this finally casts some light over my experience and that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination

It would also possibly explain why I catch the sun so easily and why my arms seem to
have a light permanent suntan all year round.

I would be interested to know of any groups if there are any. Thanks
Click to expand...
1583265047875.png I dont belive it. a pig having sunray treatment
 
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I also can remember having sun-light treatment, it was towards the later years of my time in junior school, I think. I was sent for sun-light treatment after attending a school medical, I believe they thought I was not "developing" as well as I should.
I was excused from school one morning each week, my mum would pick me up and take me to Maas Road school clinic in Northfield. Once there we would enter a large room and I would have to undress to my underpants and wait my turn for treatment. The room would be full with other boys, all in the same state of undress as me, waiting with their parent for the same treatment. My mum would always start gossiping with the other mums while we waited. Most of the time there would only be enough chairs for the parents to sit so I and most of the other lads would have to stand while we waited. I know I seemed to wait for ages because my mother always wanted to get there early, to ensure we were not late. I think the mothers would treat this as an occasion to catch up with the gossip. We would then be called over for the treatment and have to put the goggles on and sit on a bench in front of the lamp for a period of time. I think there would be about ten at a time getting the "treatment". We would then have to turn round and have our backs exposed to the lamps. Afterwards you would get dressed again and return to school.
If I remember right this took place over a period of say twelve weeks, then there would be a break and then another period of treatment. Can't remember how long this went on for, maybe a couple of years. Much, much later I discovered that this treatment, far from doing you any good, was actually quite harmful and did cause skin cancer in some cases. It was a scandal that was covered up quite well by all concerned. Probably would not happen nowadays, but I still feel quite bad about how I was treated.
 
With regard to the above contribution to this thread, l was asked when this took place. It was all during the so called *swinging sixties". As I said, I believe I went for sun-ray treatment as a result of a school medical. I had to suffer two school medicals, one when I was about ten and the other when I was in the senior school at about 12 or 13 (perhaps good topic for a separate thread). So it was early sixties I went for sun Ray treatment. Was it mainly Birmingham that this was carried out in. I suppose treatment was done with all good intentions, but I think it was a very grave error of judgement, which no one has properly explained or apologised for. If it was a nationwide treatment, it makes the issue worse and if it was just Birmingham - why?
 
My sister had this treatment as a young child of 5 years and years later went on to study medicine herself at Brum Uni.
In 2000 aged 51 she developed thyroid cancer which is a rare cancer unless you were unfortunate to live in Chernobyl!
She considered that her unnecessary exposure to radiation could have been a contributing factor although she did have an operation on her neck at 14 over something else.
Anyway happily it was encapsulated and after radiotherapy treatment she has made a full recovery and now at almost 74 is still working! Only because she wants to.

I was sent to the flat foot clinic in Sparkhill which consisted of missing a morning at school and getting a bus at aged only 10 years on my own from Hall Green.We had to yep, strip to pants and vest like for school gym and climb poles and pick up marbles with our toes!

I also remember one of those awful public health films on at the cinema, the Robin Hood probably. One such nugget showed little children sitting in front of these lamps half naked and all the boys in the cinema started wolf whistling and generally being rude. Another showed a terrifying view of a little girl with plaits in an iron lung and another was a film about DDT being sprayed in Australia to kill swarms of locusts which splatted all over the windowpane of the light aircraft as flew through the swarm. Lovely!
 
In the solarium at the Wolseley works where welfare work is of a high standard….Birmingham Gazette March 1940.


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In my teens I had to make frequent visits to a particular bank for my employer. One of the cashiers I’d chat to there was a very pleasant, large young lady who unfortunately suffered from what looked like really quite bad psoriasis. She was absent for a few weeks and when I saw her again she looked much better, her skin had greatly cleared and she had a lovely, honey coloured tan. Hoping to give her ego a boost, I thought I’d pay her a compliment.
”Hello, I haven’t seen you for a while. You look great and your tan looks lovely! Have you been anywhere nice?” I said.
”The Skin Hospital” came the reply.

I felt like crawling up my own backside.
 
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