In 2002 my partner was feeling tired all the time. It was a strange kind of tired and not one from lack of sleep. He went to the Doctor, as we all do, however was fortunate enough for the Doctor to be doing a thesis on why people present with certain ailments.

12 vials of blood later and it turned out my partner was extremely low in iron.

Whilst this was being managed the Doctor also sent off a hair analysis test. If you have never had a hair analysis they are really interesting with tests showing what positive minerals you have in your system as well as the negative ones.

Turns out my partner had arsenic in his system and it was so high the bar chart went off the scale. The Doctor pulled out this little book and looked up occupations that were most at risk of exposure to arsenic.

My partner had grown up in the country and the Doctor asked

Have you been involved in farming? No..
Are you a carpenter? No…

What do you do for a living?

Photographer replied my partner.

And there was the answer.  In years gone by my partner had done a lot of dark room work.

So we set to work to remove the arsenic from his system.  Every night putting on the Footsies Detox Pads and every morning they came out black.

Four months into using them every night another hair analysis test showed the arsenic was barely detectable.