Ilkley mum's board game helped her deal with double tragedy (From Ilkley Gazette)

Ilkley mum's board game helped her deal with double tragedy

7:30am Monday 8th February 2010

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A MOTHER diagnosed with cancer just hours after the death of her eldest son turned to writing – and the creation of a unique board game – to help herself and others overcome enormous challenges in their lives.

Australian-born Nhys Glover, of Addingham, lost her epileptic 20-year-old son, Chris, to a massive and unforseen seizure in 2002.

And in a devastating twist of fate, Nhys, discovered on the same day that she had breast cancer.

“I was faced with two of the most horrific pieces of news a woman can hear, and both came within a few hours of each other,” she said.

Now 55, and working in Yorkshire as a business development coach and author, she says she turned to writing as a lifeline.

“Up until that point, I’d helped hundreds of people in their life and career choices – suddenly my own path was blurred and I needed help myself.

“Writing proved to be that lifeline. It brought me back from the depths of depression, and helped focus my energies on something constructive and tangible.”

Nhys, who underwent a successful bi-lateral mastectomy in 2002, went on to publish critically acclaimed fantasy novel Labyrinth of Light a year later.

Following the success of her novel, she also came up with what she hopes will be the key to helping others through their own ordeal, in the form of a board game-come-self awareness programme, Psyche’s Key.

Hailed as a ‘Monopoly for the spiritually minded’, the non-competitive game takes the player on a journey of self-discovery. It can be played for fun or as a means of identifying, understanding and dealing with setbacks and tragedies.

The object of the game is to find Psyche’s Key, the answer that ‘only our soul knows’.

Players take turns moving through a ‘sacred spiral’ into the centre of the board, finding answers to deep, meaningful and often difficult questions along the way. The game can be played alone, or with friends – who can help fellow players by helping them recognise personality traits they are not aware of.

Players can also try out the game again and again to deal with different aspects of their life, or a specific question – such as deciding between two career paths.

Nhys has put questions about her own life to test on the game, asking why she should have suffered breast cancer, and came up with the theme of nurture – how she had always been the one to nurture others, but her own illness saw her pushed to seek out the support of others.

She says she designed the game as a way of dealing with her own grief.

Nhys said: “The loss of my son, and the onset of breast cancer, led to an unimaginably difficult period of my life. I was left in tatters and it required all my strength just to carry on.

“The idea behind Psyche’s Key was born at this time. It helped me come to terms with what had happened, and went a long way in healing the hurt, pain and confusion.

Since then, the game has helped dozens of other people to overcome life’s challenges, become stronger individuals and go forward with confidence.”

She admits the concept of the game may seem weird, but it is simply a matter of combining two self-help methods, coaching and future focus.

She regularly runs ‘game days’ to help explain to people how the game works, and what they can achieve from it.

More information is on her website www.thejourneywoman.info.

Originally from Maclean on Australia’s east coast, she moved to Britain in 2006 to work as a personal development trainer and find her British roots.

Her grandfather was from Halifax and always spoke fondly of his home county.

Nhys said she had a keen sense of coming home when she came to and settled in the green and peaceful surroundings of Wharfedale.

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