Tracey Bryce, From Sunday Post

LOUISE Blanchfield watched as her husband Richard struggled to pull himself up from the chair.

She pondered what the doctor had said… that he wouldn’t get any better, he would get worse – and could be in a wheelchair by the time he was 60.

At just 41 – and a father of two young children – she struggled to accept his deteriorating way of life.

So she decided to do what any doting wife would: find a solution.

Five years on, Richard’s crippling arthritis and bowel disease have all but disappeared.

And he’s grateful to Louise every single day.

“I just couldn’t accept that was the future for my husband,” Louise said. “He deserved more than that.”

Richard, 46, struggled with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, from the age of 18.

Things got worse five years ago when it developed into secondary inflammatory arthritis.

“He needed help getting dressed and couldn’t cook, which was something he loved.”

Scientist and physiotherapist Louise took on the role of family chef and spent her nights trawling the internet once the couple’s kids Megan and Alec, now 12 and 9, were tucked up in bed, determined to end her husband’s agony.

Louise learned that gluten could be a major factor in inflammation, so cut that from the family’s diet, then dairy.

She started to follow “clean eating” methods, with salads and vegetables, and introduced more fish.

It was a slow process, but within months, Richard’s symptoms began to improve.

A few years on and the doting dad, who works in renewable energy, has made a miraculous recovery. He now regularly plays tennis and shows virtually no signs of arthritis.

His last colonoscopy showed a “normal-looking bowel” and he’s in remission from colitis.

“In a nutshell, Richard is better,” said Louise, 42. “He has the occasional arthritis flare-up, like at Christmas when he falls off the dietary wagon. Well, we’re not perfect!

“People often don’t connect what they eat with their health. But anything from infertility to migraines and digestion problems can be alleviated by closer attention to diet.”

Louise’s foodie theory led her to take a course in nutritional therapy. She’s now qualified in the field and launched her new company, The Food Physio, last year.

The couple, from Freuchie in Fife, are in the final stages of completing a cookbook, The Food Physio: Eating My Way Back to Health, filled with gluten and dairy-free recipes, all of which have been tried and tested by the Blanchfields.

They hope it will hit the shelves this summer.

“Richard was a non-believer and look at him now. He’s proof that it can work,” said Louise.

“When you’re ill, it can feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. But you can lie down and accept it or try to make it better – and we did just that.”

To pre-order the book, visit www.thefoodphysio.com

IMAGE: Richard and Louise Blanchfield, who have developed a healthy cook book with recipes which helped Richard (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)