PET lovers descended on Oxford in the hope of finding a spiritual cure for their poorly animals.

Holistic healers have been helping people with ailments at the North Oxford Christian Spiritualist Healing Church for a number of years.

On Saturday, the healers extended their repertoire to lay their hands on cats and dogs for the first time.

The healers planned to use positive energy to help the animals at the spiritual healing session at the church in Middle Way, Summertown.

Lorraine Hagin, 49, and her husband Lynwood, 57, travelled from Barry in South Wales in a bid to give their dog Elbie a better chance of survival. Elbie has suspected mouth cancer, and the couple made a 240-mile round trip to try to help the dog’s chances of survival.

Mrs Hagin said: “It was well worth the trip and hopefully it will have an impact on Elbie. It certainly had an impact on me – I found it very moving.

“We wanted to try every avenue we could to help him.”

The animal healing session was the idea of Humphrey Truswell, 63, a tutor in the school of architecture at Oxford Brookes University.

He said: “Healing works for human beings, so I thought we could try it with animals.

“It is not necessarily curative, but when we put our hands on the animals they seem to relax and stop being tense.

“It has been very busy and I have seen quite a number of cats and dogs.

“We are treating this as a trial, but in theory animals should benefit as much as human beings.”

Holistic healer Jane Blain, from Eynsham, said: “We were pleasantly surprised by how many people came.

“We must have seen at least 20 pets with all sorts of different conditions, and I think we will hold another session in a few months’ time.”

The healers’ claim to channel energy from a higher power or spirit through their fingers in a bid to cure the pets.

There was no charge for pet owners, who were asked only to make a donation.