Introduction
The organisation, Foresight, first came into being in the late 1970's, and, like an oak tree appears out of an acorn, and it grew from very small beginnings, and continues to evolve and expand even today.

This is the story of how and why Foresight first began and the progress that has been made over the years. It has been included in the web site, partly because people often ask how Foresight came about, but also to give an insight into the motivation and genuine feeling behind all the hard the work that goes on. At times, Foresight has been accused of being operating solely to spread scare stories and to sell expensive food supplements, whereas if you take the time to read the story below, you will see that it was started and continues out of a passionate desire to improve the health of the unborn child, in order to give every new baby the best possible start in life.

None of the activities of Foresight are for the purposes of making a profit and many of the people who work for Foresight give their time for nothing.

1960-1970
In the early 1960's, the woman who later founded Foresight, Belinda Barnes (known to her friends as 'Nim') lived with her husband in London. She had three children of her own, but later had several miscarriages. Her first child was a son who was soon found to be hyperactive. She found that a gluten-free diet solved some of his problems but then she had a daughter who, after showing difficulties with walking, was found to have two tumours growing on her spinal cord. This took a lot of resolving, with much surgery and radio therapy. Finally her third child was so allergic that, at eight months old, he could not take any food other than breast milk without suffering asthma, eczema and diarrhoea. This led to a long learning curve about allergies and digestive problems.

In 1965 she and her husband decided to move out of London to Surrey, and by chance ended up living near two delightful women, who were the wife and the sister of Professor Humphrey Osmond which seemed like a direct answer to her prayers. Humphrey was a psychiatrist-with-vision at that time working in Canada with Abram Hoffer. He was pioneering the use of nutrients - at that time just supplements of nicotinamide (vitamin B3), pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and vitamin C - with the mentally ill. On his suggestion, Nim started to give her hyperactive son a daily nicotinamide supplement and found the change was miraculous. Overnight she had a different child. This was one of the turning points in her life and sparked her interest in good diet and nutritional balance within the body.

1970-1977
One day in 1973, Nim read an article by the playwright Roger MacDougal, who was living in California and who suffered from MS. He had greatly improved his condition by eating a gluten-free, milk-free diet and taking a multivitamin that he had formulated for himself. At that time, Nim and her family were living next door to a Cheshire Home (a residential care centre for people suffering from debilitating and disabling illnesses such as Muscular Dystrophy, Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis) and had became involved with some of the home's activities and used to take round surplus vegetables from their garden. She showed them the article and for some time ten long-term MS sufferers were greatly helped by special diets and nutritional supplements. Unfortunately, the 'Powers-That-Were' at the time did not approve and did their best to stop it, in spite of the fact that all of the sufferers made very significant improvements and some went into complete remission. Interestingly, a few years later the idea was taken up again and the approach is now quite widely used by a number of doctors in England.

At the same time a local Roman Catholic priest was trying to help people suffering from alcoholism. Nim acted as an intermediary and passed on advice from Humphrey Osmond and his colleague Abe Hoffer, and between them they found that abstention from alcohol could be made much easier with detection of allergy and dietary adjustment and supplements. This endeavour flourished, and a number of those involved later went on to found the Westminster Advisory Centre on Alcoholism.

These three incidents had fully convinced everyone concerned of the relevance of food allergies, and also of vitamin and mineral status, to mental health. Nim continued to write to Humphrey Osmond and Abe Hoffer quite regularly. She joined Sanity, the Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain and the McCarrison Society, to glean all the information she could, and also to pass on the American work to them. Through these organisations she met some doctors in the UK who were into diet, allergies, and so on and was able to introduce them to Humphrey Osmond and another like-minded specialist, Unabelle Blackwood, from Ohio.

Nim's next turning point came when she read an article in the American Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, by Dr Elizabeth Lodge-Rees, a paediatrician from California. The article was about allergy, dyslexia and hyperactivity and described in detail families with the same problems as her own. Nim wrote to her and invited her over to England for a working holiday. Elizabeth brought three books with her by authors: Weston Price, Frank Pottinger and Roger Williams (please see references). The night she arrived, Nim sat up all night reading then they spent the rest of the visit discussing what they had learned.

Out in California, Dr Lodge-Rees was into a new enterprise. She had heard that a small piece of hair was taken from the animals in the slaughterhouse and analysed for mineral content to give an indication of whether or not the animal was in good condition. She felt that this technique could easily be applied to humans, and as it was completely non-invasive, it might be particularly suitable to children. The following year, she and her colleague, Dr Gary Gordon, started their laboratory, "Mineralab". In 1976 she invited Nim to a nine-day symposium in the States to hear what they had learned about mineral metabolism and the reading of mineral analyses. Linus Pauling and Virginia Livingstone-Wheeler and many other eminent names in their field were also present.

Meanwhile, in the UK, probably partly because she had been a Nursery Nurse, and partly because people noticed the change in her hyperactive son, a lot of people began to ask Nim for help with their children for problems such as eczema, asthma, dyslexia, diarrhoea, growth retardation, learning difficulties and so on. She started sending hair samples out to Dr Lodge-Rees' laboratory for analysis, and from the information gained, was able to suggest the right supplements for the children in England.

This unpaid work soon snowballed. Nim began to feel strongly, as she still does today, that none of these disasters should be happening in the first place. It became evident that it was all so preventable and she gradually came to believe that if parents were in good health before a child was even conceived, the chances of that child being very healthy were much increased, and therefore the need to deal with child health problems months or years down the line would be greatly reduced or even removed altogether.

1978 - Foresight officially formed
In 1978, Nim officially formed Foresight with five friends, with the specific intention of promoting Preconceptual Care, in order to get things right from the outset. Her friends were Humphrey Osmond's sister, Dorothy Gale, a midwife, and his wife Jane Osmond, a nurse, Gill Gibbons who worked at the Cheshire Home (and had been involved in all the efforts with MS there), Ruth Jervis, a nutritionist, whose parents founded the health farm Enton Hall, and Eve Mervyn-Smith, then a Community Health Council Secretary. Their scientific advisors were Professor John Dickerson, Professor of Human Nutrition at University of Surrey, and Professor Derek Bryce-Smith from the University of Reading, who at that time was carrying out pioneering work against lead pollution.

Their first intention was modest. It was to gather all the work and research together, work out a plan of campaign for preconception, and to write articles. They hoped to interest the media, the medical profession and the Government, however, after one article on preconceptual care in the popular press, they were inundated by the general public wanting to get more information. They had to write their first booklets and leaflets very quickly and found themselves organising hair analysis in the States for a growing army of people. The logistics of it soon became quite overwhelming.

John Dickerson, the Professor of Nutrition from Surrey University, formulated some basic supplements which were manufactured for them by the Cantassium Company, a pharmaceutical company in south London who had made up the supplements for Roger MacDougal (the Californian playwright and MS sufferer).

This is how the original Foresight programme was brought into being. They gave advice on optimising nutrition, used the results from the hair analyses to optimise mineral status, and they helped people with food allergies to find organisations or doctors who could help them to adjust their lifestyle.

Foresight started with the two scientific advisors, plus seven doctors who were known to them and who had similar views. In the early days, several splendid American researchers came over and to give lectures, including Carl Pfeiffer, Donald Oberleas, Theron Randolph and David Horrabin, as well as Humphrey Osmond and Elizabeth Lodge-Rees. Later, Foresight also started working with nutritionists and other alternative practitioners. The original committee has gradually altered and grown; Foresight now has a system of local branch secretaries and currently (2001) about 2,500 members.

1980 - First contact with infertility problems
About 2 years into Foresight's existence Nim was approached by a woman who had been trying to have a baby for seven years, to see if the Foresight system could offer any help with infertility. Nim was unable to give any positive reply, but felt that any improvement to parental health could only be good thing and was happy to give it a try. After some months the woman did become pregnant, and later gave birth to boy-girl twins.

This was felt to be a very significant milestone, and since then, the infertility work has increased and now forms about 60% of Foresight's total workload. The various causes of unexplained fertility are not all fully understood, and not all can be cured, but gradually new research throws up findings which confirm what Foresight has found and begins to explain its extraordinary success rate.

1980 onwards - The Foresight programme develops

• The aim of Foresight has always been to constantly learn and gather together new research findings and gradually the Foresight programme has been adapted to take on board everything that has been learned, until it has expanded to the form it is in today. For more information about the Foresight Programmes, please click here.
• Many, many people have helped Foresight over the years. However, particular credit must go to the following people for their input and research efforts, which contributed so much in the early years:-
• Derek Bryce-Smith in the UK and Elizabeth Lodge-Rees in the USA for their work concerning the damage done to the body by the toxic metals.
• Arthur and Margaret Wynn for their work about the dangers of smoking and alcohol in pregnancy.
• Dr Ellen Grant for her work on the effects of the contraceptive pill on hormone levels and fertility (from her research it has become clear that the pill does not serve the next generation well and, consequently, eliminating the use of exogenous hormones and restoring normal mineral balances has become a large part of Foresight's work).
• Dr Ellen Grant again for a lot of information on genito-urinary infection. Various studies, including Foresight's own observations, have found a positive rate of up to 69% in the general population often with symptomless infections, so we now suggest to all our couples that they check out for GUI on the NHS as a routine part of our programme.
• Mrs Colleen Norman, a superb teacher of Natural Family Planning - with her help, replacing pill use with NFP knowledge, coupled with barrier methods during the fertile phase as and when required, has become another mainstay of the Foresight programme.
• Mrs Enfys Chapman of PEGS (a support group for anyone whose health has been affected by exposure to pesticides, now known as PEX - Action against Pesticide Exposure). Foresight has been advocating organically grown food for a very long time, since first learning about the links between the organophosphate pesticides and eczema, asthma, diarrhoea etc. (In recent years, it has become much easier to 'eat organic', as more organic food is appearing in the supermarkets.)
• More is becoming known about parasites. Our nutritionists come forward with new research all the time, and Foresight is now looking much more carefully at irritable bowel syndrome (experienced by about 1 person in 5 of those who contact Foresight). If in doubt, a Nutritionist can arrange a stool test and frequently we find giardia and blastocystic hominus. Coeliac condition, cow's milk allergy or candidia are also quite common.
• The analysis of hair and the interpretation of the results becomes more sophisticated as we become more experienced. Thus the programme grows and becomes more effective all the time.

Publications, etc during the last two decades

• Three books have been published: one for the couples themselves (Planning for a Healthy Baby by Belinda Barnes & Suzanne Gail Bradley), one for the health professionals (Preparation for Pregnancy by Suzanne Gail Bradley & Nicholas Bennet) and one on hyperactivity in children (The Hyperactive Child by Belinda Barnes and Vicky Colquhoun).
• An explanatory video about the Foresight programme has been filmed.
• Ruth Jervis and her husband wrote the Foresight Wholefood Cookbook.
• Literature Summaries - author and researcher, Tuula Tuormaa, has written a series of very well referenced booklets, summarising the research from the scientific and medical literature on various subjects.
• We also have an A3 poster which has the full programme on it, and a handful of leaflets on various subjects.
• Two research studies - 1990-92 (published 1993) and 1996-2000 (to be published late 2001) - see below.

Foresight Original Research
From very early on, it was obvious to those involved in Foresight, that the holistic approach to health advocated was often successful, and that many avoidable miscarriages, birth problems, etc could be prevented. It was hard, however, to get recognition from the authorities and the medical profession, and naturally Foresight wanted its work to be appreciated and recognised. Early attempts to carry out professional research to a standard that might satisfy even the most sceptical were slow to get off the ground as two separate projects were catastrophically hit by university cuts in the late 1980's, however, 1989 saw the start of a fruitful and rewarding 9-year relationship with the Department of Nutrition at the University of Surrey in Guildford, led by Dr Neil Ward.

In 1990, Foresight fundraised for and, with others got the university, an ICPMS mass spectrometer and in return the University took over the hair analysis, which until this time had been carried out first in the USA, and later by BioLab in London. Between 1990 and 1992 a small study observing 367 couples, many of whom had experienced fertility or reproductive problems, was carried out. The results, published in 1993, were startling and very encouraging and a much bigger study of over 1000 couples was started in 1996 ? (The results of this study are currently being written up and will hopefully be published either at the end of this year (2001) or early next year).

1998 - 2000 - Foresight's own laboratory is set up
By the late 1990's Foresight had grown so much that the volume of hair analysis work generated was too much for the university department's resources. It was decided that the time had come for Foresight to set up its own dedicated laboratory. This was a very big drain on the charity's financial reserves, but after a couple of false starts and many teething problems the new laboratory, complete with its own mass spectrometer was opened for business in 1999. The lab has one permanent, full-time, highly qualified member of staff plus an assistant, and the turn-around time for sending hair for analysis is usually 2-3 weeks. The machine is performing well and consistently and Foresight is very happy with the way it has turned out and considers the investment worthwhile. Many other materials and substances, other than hair, including drinking water, shampoos, herbs, etc can be analysed on request.

New manufacturer of Foresight supplements found
From the beginning the Foresight / Surrey University formulations for the food supplements had been manufactured and distributed by the Cantassium Company, of Larkhill Farm in Putney. It was a long and happy partnership and the Foresight supplements formed a significant part of their business. Many products were available over the counter from health food shops or from the mail order company, Vitamin Service, of Woking. However in 1999 the managing director and owner wished to retire and Cantassium was sold off to a big pharmaceutical conglomerate. This conglomerate was interested in aquiring the Foresight brand name but was not interested in listening to or working alongside Foresight, intending to substitute its own formulations without consultation and at a higher cost.

So, once again outside circumstances dictated a change of practice, and Foresight decided to arrange for manufacture and distribution of the food supplements themselves, finding a company to manufacture the products to their own, very specific, formulae and commissioning their own brand label. For the time being the supplements are only available from the Foresight Resource Centre, plus a couple of internet-based mail order companies and from one or two shops, but it is hoped that in time they will become more widely recognised and will return again to the shelves of High Street health food shops and similar. The range has recently been converted from hot-pressed tablets to organic gelatine or vegetarian capsules with organic vegetable powder as the packing base.

There are many advantages to manufacturing their own supplements, the main ones being that Foresight has control over what is in them and the way they are marketed. They are not manufactured with the intention of producing a large profit, but having a regular turnover helps to put Foresight on a sounder financial footing.

For more information about the Foresight vitamin and mineral food supplements, please click here.

2001 - Foresight Resource Centre set up
Originally, the main distributor of the nutritional supplements was a company called Vitamin Service of Woking, and a big debt of thanks is owed to them for all their hard work over the years. However when the owners retired and the company was sold off in early 2001, it was decided that the time had come for Foresight to have its own mail-order facility, and accordingly, In March 2001, the Foresight Resource Centre was opened. This is part of the charity but is housed in separate premises to the head-quarters. It was set up primarily to store and distribute the Foresight supplements, but all Foresight material, including the books, video and other publications, can be obtained from there. By keeping the distribution of the supplements 'in-house', the cost to te consumer is kept to an absolute minimum.

The Resource Centre also houses the Foresight Reference Library of books for loan to members and other interested parties. Visitors are welcome to call during office hours, but please phone to make an appointment first.

The decision to open the Resource Centre was another thing brought forward by external circumstances, when the proprietors of Vitamin Service, formerly the principal distributor of the Foresight supplements, announced their decision to retire earlier in the year.

2005 - Foresight relocates to West Bognor in West Sussex
In February, 2005, Foresight moved from its previous address in Godalming in Surrey to its current address in West Bognor in West Sussex. This was a very exciting move for Foresight as it is the first time it has its own premises.

Conclusion
As you can see, Foresight has grown and evolved over many years, with some particularly exciting developments in the last few years.

References:-

1. Weston Price - Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
2. Frank Pottinger - Cats
3. Roger Williams - Nutrition against Disease