About : Betty Bougeon
I was born in Singapore in 1932. My father was a textile merchant, my mother a matron of the Singapore General Hospital, having joined the Colonial Nursing Service.
The climate of an island on the equator was such that I was sent to school in the hills of Malaya at the age of three. In those days the only milk available was in tins imported from Australia so when cows were introduced every mother was ecstatic and rushed to buy real milk for her child. Little was known about Bovine T.B. those who were fed on this became sick and had to leave for the UK. Thus we landed in England in 1939 just before war broke out.
After matric I wanted to be a vet but was told that this was not a career for women so I opted for nursing. Then as I was too young to start general training, did a 2 year course in orthopaedics. Then went on the University College Hospital in London for general training for three years. My sister also trained as a nurse at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and then went to Kenya. I later broke my neck in the Drakensburg Mountains and my health was again compromised but a homeopath helped me recover, so homeopathy became my next interest.
Then it was while teaching a lady who had rods and screws inserted to straighten her spine and was often in excruciating pain that Supersalve was developed. Homeopathy failed to help her so I decided to apply my mind to making a cream - Eucalyptus, Camphor, Rosemary, Calendula, St-Johns wort forming the base ingredients with Cloves used as an effective pain killer. Honey was added later. The resulting cream turned out to be amazingly effective hence the name SuperSalve.