Visit to a clairvoyant dramatically changed life of Mayo woman

by Tom Gillespie

A CHANCE visit to a clairvoyant on St. Patrick’s Day 2006 was to dramatically change the life of Castlebar native Alison Hussein (Ruane).

The fortune-teller, Betty Palko, Princess Diana’s former clairvoyant, told Alison she would be ‘working in aeroplanes in a completely different culture’.

Two months later, to the day, Alison started as an air hostess with Emirates airlines in Dubai.

She admitted: "Fifteen years ago I went to Dubai to work for Emirates airlines. It was a dream come true for me. It allowed me to pursue my dream of becoming a cosmetic tattoo artist and to become a reiki practitioner."

However, at the start of the pandemic, along with 2,999 of her colleagues, she was made redundant and was forced to return to Ireland to live with her mother in Bohola.

During her period in the Middle East she became a reiki master teacher and an expert in micro-pigmentation.

Now she has availed of a back-to-work scheme which has allowed her to start her own business offering hair loss solutions to cancer patients, both men and women alike, who want to replenish their eyebrow hair and eyelash enhancement.

Allison grew up in Castlebar and people would know her best as Alison Ruane, her mother’s maiden name.

After attending school in Castlebar and Cork she went to Dublin in the hope of breaking into the acting scene. She got a job in a theatre box office.

Alison took up the story: "Sadly, I was bullied out of my job. As my mental health was always to the forefront of my mind it was then I first discovered reiki.

"I was in a bit of a dark place, suffering from depression in my 20s. A client of mine in a fake tan studio said did I ever try reiki. I was at such a low ebb that I would try anything.

"I went up to the Dublin Mountains, opened a gate of a field, drove down a field for half-a-kilometre, opened another gate. I arrived at this little cottage and this man came out. He had long hair and a ponytail and glasses that made his eyes look like massive fish bowls.

"Instantly I liked him. He had become a reiki master teacher.

“From that moment onward by life started to change.

"I really felt like a light was switched back on within me.

“I started going to him twice a week for two years. I was afraid to open my eyes in case the magic stopped.

“I did not know what he was doing. I did not care. I had blind faith in him. Whatever he was doing was working for me.

"From there I started to get stronger and stronger and I developed a great interest in reiki."

Fast forward another 10 years.

She continued: "I was at a Mind Body and Spirit festival and I went to Betty Palko. She asked did I ever consider joining the airlines.

"She said she could see me working in aeroplanes in a completely different culture and she gave it a time scale of two months. This was March 17, 2006.

"I went home and was very down. One day I was looked through the Irish Independent and an advertisement said they had just changed the upper age limit for Emirate airlines from 30 to 33. I applied for it.

"I did the interview as I had nothing to lose. Eventually about a month later in April I got the job and my start date was May 17 - two months to the day that I met Betty Palko.

"I didn’t know anything about Dubai. I hadn’t a clue where I was going. I was starting afresh.

"A year on from that I met my first husband. He was from England. Everything was perfect on paper but he just wasn’t the right person for me. I didn’t want to have children if it wasn’t the right person. That finished up."

Before she left Ireland she had done reiki level one and she did level two in Dubai. In 2009 she went to India and achieved level three to become a reiki master teacher.

Alison continued: "I always had a passion and a love for make-up. In 2016 I sold my engagement ring and all the jewellery to get the money to go to London on my vacation to a German micro-pigmentation company to learn how to do micro-pigmentation. That was a relatively new thing that could put hair strokes to their eyebrows.

"My plan was this is going to help people that have cancer. I did lots of free treatments. I went back to Dubai with my first qualification and did treatments for friends to gain experience.

"At this point I had met somebody else. A year before the pandemic I decided I had done this again for the wrong reasons. I had someone that I like but did not love and I concluded that relationship.

"I moved into a new apartment. I had adopted a little cat who I brought to Ireland with me - my little fur baby. At this stage my health was suffering from the global flights as we were working a lot of hours.

"At this stage I felt so comfortable in my discomfort. I was miserable in a house on my own with my little cat, feeling stuck again. It seemed to happen to me every 15 years - stuck, stuck, stuck.

"On May 16, 2020, I got called into the office and I had this sinking feeling we were going to be let go. Along with my 2,999 colleagues, we were told we had two months to get out of the country.

"I was absolutely devastated that everything had come crashing down. I suffer from ADD as well and for me to organise my whole life of 15 years into boxes was the most traumatic thing I could ever do.

"Mum was living alone for 17 years and she had gotten used to her own company. I told her I had 13 boxes and a cat coming home in September."

When home she discovered her qualifications were not recognised in Ireland for insurance purposes, which she has since rectified.

Allison added: "Now that I have insurance I am seeking customers.

"I have offered my services to the Irish Cancer Foundation to do one person per month free of charge.

"The little heart I have on my face is not permanent ink. Every day I put something on my face to remind me that things are good."

Alison specialises in eyebrow micro-blading, permanent eyeliner and permanent lip liner, and for men brow placement and scalp micro-pigmentation.