The Needle and the Damage Done

The Needle and the Damage Done is the story of a boy from a small Irish village who became an adventurer, multi-award-winning doctor and physician to the stars. Part travelogue, part thriller, part celebrity tell-all, the memoir is a whirlwind of adventure and a fascinating insight into the colourful life of Dr Patrick Treacy.

Cosmetic doctor Patrick Treacy grew up in rural Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Determined to become a doctor, he raised money for medical school in Dublin by smuggling cars from Germany to Turkey. He studied biochemistry at Queens University Belfast and medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons. While working in a Dublin hospital, he was accidentally jabbed with a needle from an HIV patient. He took blood test after blood test for many years until he was confirmed negative. Initially overwhelmed by the experience, he moved to New Zealand, away from everyone who knew what he was going through: his girlfriend and his colleagues. Thus, he began a peripatetic existence, working as a doctor around the world. In Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad, Treacy was arrested and imprisoned, spending days wondering whether he was going to be hanged as a spy. He worked as a ship’s surgeon in California and with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia. On returning to Dublin, Treacy set up the Ailesbury Clinic where he pioneered the emergent field of cosmetic dermatology, championing treatments regarding the use of botulinum toxin and dermal fillers. His award-winning research brought him numerous international accolades and many celebrity patients, including the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, who came flocking to his door.

Central to this memoir is Treacy’s personal journey: his efforts to escape the conflict of The Troubles, coping with the fear that he may have contracted HIV, getting over his lost love and surviving the crippling Irish recession. Most of all, it gives us a fascinating insight into his award-winning research on the influence of Botox ® on the brain and how he developed protocols to reverse the damage being done to patient’s faces as a result of the complications of dermal fillers.

The Original Idea

A young person struggles with their own mortality after the death of their father. As they ponder this question, the great question which we must all face at some time or another, and filled with anxiety, their thoughts turn to the first law of thermodynamics: ‘the total energy in a system remains constant, although it may be converted from one form to another.’ Perhaps as one being dies, another is born, and life remains but only changes form and shape. Might this experience of suffering provide the key to accepting their own finitude, and help them push through the grief of losing a loved one?

2:

After the death of a beloved parent, a young adventurer known as the Young One embarks on a mysterious journey of metaphorical encounters. Perhaps they can help him understand a dying man’s final words, and finally discover the meaning behind the Original Idea.

The Power of Being Known: A Heart-Centered Journey Connecting to Self, Earth, Lineage, and Love

The heart’s technology is more advanced than a cell phone and is the first organ to be created while you’re in your mother’s womb - chosen to be first for a Divine reason.   Connecting to the heart daily is the key to gaining access to the truth, wisdom, love, and healing you are worthy of receiving.

To know yourself begins by knowing that you are one cell, one of many, and together, co-create your heart and entire Being. 

Choosing to know yourself from deep within and allowing yourself to be known opens the heart to be seen, loved, heard, felt, and supported in the present moment– which means you get to experience the richness of life wholeheartedly.

 This book shines light on what’s been hidden underneath the surface and gently leads you on an inner exploration for you to feel safe and empowered to alchemize fears, integrate a new way of Being, embody the truth and power of who you are, and love your Self (your cells) from the inside-out. 

This book can be read over and over again to support you in every phase of your heart-centered journey.

So, let’s begin!

Be still, feel, ask, listen, breathe, receive,

and know.

– Dr. Sofia Costa

The Price Tag Is on You

What price tag are you wearing?

EDUCATION

Moulds us into human resources

ECONOMIES

buy our time

GOVERNMENTS

label us since birth

MEDIA

sells our attention and emotions

HEALTH

packages our bodies

BELIEFS

manipulate our minds and souls

TECHNOLOGY

turns us into semi-gods & semi-robots

But behind each of these systems there is a secret. One that can help you work with them, change them and turn them to your and humanity’s advantage.

The Questions Put by Jesus

Questions are revealing. It is exciting, therefore, in this book to study not only how Jesus’ use of questions characterises his ministry and his style of teaching, but also how those questions reveal his train of thought as events unfold, and what they reveal about him as a person in relation to himself, his neighbour, his environment, and God. This book engages with the milieu and the different Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. It examines 108 of his questions in some detail together with their parallels, amounting to 299 questions in all. It explores Jesus’ use of questions to promote his teaching and ministry and sometimes, more aggressively, to defend his disciples or discomfort and discredit his critics and opponents.

Hopefully, being alive to the questions put by Jesus and even wondering, perhaps, how we might answer some of them, helps to sharpen our personal beliefs. 

The Rainbow Portal of Beliefs

Dear Reader, how do you feel about your life? Is it fulfilling and meaningful? Or do you feel that something is missing? During my life journey, I realised that each of us has a mission or a call, which we often tend to be more or less conscious about. And when we succeed in finding it, we become highly motivated to realise it as it provides us with our deepest longings. The call goes far beyond what you can experience through your normal senses and beyond what natural science can explain. Essential human topics like faith, hope and love belong to different concepts, which cannot be proved but only experienced. Furthermore, you will discover that if you identify your call and live it out accordingly, you will experience the most fulfilling and meaningful life. Even better, you become the best version of yourself. As a bonus, you will have an apparent reference whenever you need to make choices that have a far-reaching impact on your life. This book provides you with different perspectives and tools that can encourage you to become the driver in your life. As an aspiration, we follow the complete lifecycle of a person named Senius, who realised during his journey of why be satisfied with less, and learn about all his considerations to find and realise his call. The symbols below illustrate Senius’ call. May you find inspiration to develop your potential for an enriching life that will make you shine like a lighthouse and as an exemplary citizen of the global community. With these wishes, I send you my regards in the name of love and wisdom, Søren Krause.

The Retire-in-Thailand Handbook (The First Six Months)

My first six months in Thailand were frustrating. When I dreamt about retiring in Thailand, I thought that when I arrived, I would get my retirement visa, rent a condo, buy a vehicle, then spend my time exploring my new country, going to the beach, going out for meals and meeting new friends. Unfortunately, reality took over and I spent most of my time dealing with Thai bureaucracy and trying to sort out the endless problems that arise when moving to a new country. Back in Australia, I already had a visa, my own house, my own car, medical insurance, driving licence, bank accounts, credit rating, doctor and dentist. Moving to another country, I was more or less starting my life over and I needed to establish myself within the Thai system. Government, banking, medical, everything that was just part of my everyday life at home, I had to recreate in Thailand. Hopefully, this book will give you the information you need to avoid most of the problems that I had and allow you to retire to this wonderful country with confidence and assurance, as well as saving you time, money and your sanity. I wish I had been able to read this book before I left Australia.

The Road to Marital Success is Unpaved

This highly readable research-based book provides surprising answers to this simple question in plain language. Successfully married spouses have a realistic understanding of marriage and demonstrate effective marriage skills when compared to those in troubled marriages. The authors tell the reader those “secret” understandings of marriage, but more importantly, describe the skills needed to be successful and how to learn those skills.The book is a practical roadmap for married people to realize their dreams of a life-long marriage worth lasting. The book explodes myths about marriage, explains why the challenges and struggles of marriage are normal, how to get through them and reassures us that when a marriage is successful, the effort is worthwhile.The book treats marriage as a “game” and describes how to play it well and have fun playing it. The skills are presented as practical behaviours that can be learned and applied as soon as the next day. The skills turn many ideas about marriage, and even some expert advice, on their head, and while acknowledging that a successful marriage can seem magical, the book exposes the secrets and tricks behind the magic.This is a book for people starting out in a marriage, for people struggling in a troubled marriage, and even for people heading for divorce who would like to turn around their marriage. The book makes clear that reaching a successful marriage is not easy, but that most marriages can be successful. More importantly, the book offers hope and a practical “we can do it” and “here is how” approach.Finally, the book offers a roadmap to mental health counsellors (psychologists, marriage, child and family counsellors, social workers and other licensed counsellors), when working with clients who need help regarding their marital situation.

The Road to Westminster

Nothing in life is impossible provided you never lose sight of your goal and are willing to be flexible at all times and totally dedicated to achieving your aims. Setbacks crop up at the most inconvenient times, but they give you the opportunity to make changes, accept new challenges and achieve your targets in ways you could never have thought possible.
Never give up, never lose sight of your objectives. Be ruthless when assessing your progress. Take chances when you need to. Everyone needs to speculate to accumulate. Go for it at all times.

The Story of a Provincial Armenian Woman

‘Fel’ grows up in an Armenian province. What do we know about Armenia? A small Christian nation, locked between large powers, some of which are hostile. Preserving the Armenian culture is of paramount importance, but what is “culture”? As valuable as it is to the elder, the youth seek their own new values. This story is about an extraordinary young woman who struggled between respect for her country, love for her family and her own desire to be independent, preserve her self-esteem and live her ambitions. Through her eyes, we see what tensions a teenage girl in Armenia is subject to when she follows her own emotions and preferences. She takes the reader into her world filled with dilemmas, loyalty conflicts and confrontations. When her life story unfolds the reader is dragged into the astounding turmoil that results from her choices in life. Choices that are always inspired by her emotions, her personal principles and never-ending willpower to find respect, understanding and happiness, for herself and her loved ones.

This story is certainly an inspiration.

The Strength Within

December 1979, Annie was three months pregnant with her second child and in excruciating pain. She couldn't walk, couldn't stand, couldn't sleep. In just a year, Annie had gone from being an active young woman to almost entirely incapacitated. Going from one doctor to another, after 18 months, Annie finally had a diagnosis - it was a malignant Ewing's tumour the size of a tennis ball on her knee. Cancer. Almost in the same breath, Annie was told she would have to have her leg amputated above the knee and then told the baby wouldn't survive the surgery…they both defied the odds. She was 26 years old and 26 weeks pregnant. Annie has demonstrated amazing courage sharing her story and overcoming adversity, further setbacks and living life to the full, encouraging the reader to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, even when you can't see it.

The Student Book

Chris Davies is acknowledged to be Britain’s foremost graduate coach. He founded his company, Graduate Coach, seven years ago and, since then, has kick-started the careers of over 300 graduates. As a result, Amazon, Aviva, Bloomberg, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Google, JP Morgan, Lloyds Bank and many other blue chip companies count Chris’s alumni among their employees. So, too, do organisations such as Network Rail and the NHS. Before Graduate Coach, Chris pursued two other careers, in magazine publishing and advertising and marketing. In both cases, Chris built successful enterprises from scratch.