I met Mrs Howard when I was working in a GP's surgery in Carlisle in 2002. This 67-year-old lady had had trigeminal neuralgia for 3 months and been seeing her doctor at the surgery. She was having a sharp pain in her right jaw and it was so bad that any touch to the inside or outside of her mouth could trigger it. Eating, drinking, brushing teeth and washing face were all agony even cold wind could make it worse. As the strong pain killers prescribed by the doctor weren't helping much, she decided to give acupuncture a try. I chose two points in her face and one in her right hand and applied electro-acupuncture. I was told the following week that after the first session the pain was dramatically reduced more than 50%. Then every follow-up session gave her further relief. After four weekly sessions of acupuncture, Mrs Howard's facial pain had gone completely. Two years later when a journalist was writing an article for the local paper about me and Chinese medicine, I contacted Mrs Howard and asked if she was happy to be interviewed as one of my patients, she consented immediately and told me she had been fine since the treatment.