LOUGHTON: Clairvoyant visits haunted site (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

LOUGHTON: Clairvoyant visits haunted site

10:22am Tuesday 21st October 2008 in Local video news By Emily Roberts

THERE was a ghostly presence at The Academy when celebrity clairvoyant Ronnie Buckingham paid a visit.

More than 300 people packed into the venue in Langston Road, Loughton, in the hope of connecting to lost loved ones.

Speaking to the Guardian Mr Buckingham explained how it works.

"The first thing you get is a feeling about someone. You get a feeling of the age, the possible conditions - it starts off with feelings - then you hear some words, maybe you see them, you get visions of them and then they try to come through and give you information that proves to the person it's got to be them, by telling you things you couldn't possibly guess."

Fivos Averkiou, 40, from Loughton, was one of the lucky few who received a message through the clairvoyant.

His brother died unexpectedly seven years ago aged 34.

Mr Averkiou said: "He went into hospital for an operation and three days after he got deep vein thrombosis and passed away. He had multiple organ failure which was exactly correct what he said. He said about his lungs collapsing. I didn't believe in this sort of thing when my brother was alive but when he passed away I always thought there's got to be something more as he was only 34 years old, so it's quite young."

He added: "It's very emotional and comforting as well. It's very hard to deal with though because now I want to know more about it. There's about 400 people here tonight and it's pretty incredible to get something like that and really special as well."

Susan Cord, from Abridge, received a message from her mother who died less than two weeks ago.

She broke down in tears when Mr Buckingham passed on information.

Speaking afterwards she said: "I was very shocked when he said my name and certain things that related to me and it obviously was me.

“She was diagnosed with acute minoid leukemia and also rectal cancer and this was about eight weeks ago. Most of the things that Ronnie said were absolutely true, I was just so shocked, really shocked."

She added: "It obviously upset me because it's a recent death anyway, we still haven't had the funeral yet, it's next week. I feel quite happy actually. I know I was upset but I'm an emotional person but I was so, so happy really and I can't wait to tell my sisters and my brothers as well."

Mr Buckingham has been working as a medium for 11 years and had appeared on television programmes, including BBC's Inside Out.

He said: "I went to see a medium myself and she said do you realise you have got this wonderful gift of communicating and I took it from there and the rest is history really. It’s a gift - very few people can do it correctly. We all make mistakes, you hear something a bit wrong or feel something a bit wrong or what happened here tonight, the wrong person put their hand up.

“The last message I got, there's a lady here, her dad had three daughters and was crushed by a lorry so I'm giving the right information but the wrong woman put her hand up."