A commercial diving supervisor has started a £750,000 campaign to bring a complimentary oxygen therapy to Cumbria to help residents with a range of conditions - including Covid-19.

Hayden Dunstan, from Wigton, wants to set up a community interest company to build a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy chamber.

The treatment involves breathing pure oxygen through a mask or hood, at higher than atmospheric pressure. It is delivered in a pressure chamber, known as a hyperbaric chamber.

Mr Dunstan believes the chamber can help a range of conditions including sports injuries, wound healing, certain types of brain injury, circulatory and vascular problems, burns and inflammatory conditions, including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, trauma, and others.

In diving it is used for preventing the condition known as The Bends.

Mr Dunstan, 46, who has 25 years of diving experience, said: “When you breath oxygen at higher than atmospheric pressure it brings more blood into your plasma and this can accelerate healing.

“Increased oxygenation up-regulates the natural repair and rebuild processes in the body simply by altering the environment.

“This leads to accelerated healing and healing where no previous healing has been observed, from a wide range of ailments. It is non-invasive and virtually risk free.”

He claimed that in Covid-19 trials of the therapy, patients “stopped coughing and relaxed”.

He adds their is “contention” over their benefits, because the NHS limits its use of the chambers. However, The James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, in Great Yarmouth, on its website says it is used for ailments like carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression, gas/air embolisms and others.

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cumbriahyperbaric