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A professional cuddler who makes a living giving clients hugs has said people travel from all over the globe to receive the cuddle therapy she offers which is “far less intimate than a massage” and helps people from “all walks of life”. Natasha Wicks, 44, from Coventry, West Midlands, says that despite criticism, cuddling is scientifically proven to release happy hormones like dopamine and that a lot of her clients are “the big spoon in life” and go to her for emotional support that they do not have at home. As such, many of her clients are caregivers and most of them join Natasha for two-hour hugging sessions, costing £70 an hour. The sessions vary depending on what the client wants, some having “emotional hugs”, others talking more and some wanting to “sit at opposite ends of the sofa with our legs and feet entwined”. Natasha became a cuddle therapist in 2015 and, while she has had comments online from people criticising the practice, she said that her family and friends were unsurprised when she first started giving professional cuddles. She said: “They all said to me that I give the best cuddles so it’s not surprising that I’d start doing it as a job. “It’s very much what I do, I help people and want to make people feel better. It’s a natural thing when someone is going through a tough time to want to give them a hug. “Cuddle therapy might not be as widely accepted in society but it’s far less intimate than other things like massages which are seen as normal.” Prior to becoming a cuddler, Natasha originally trained as a CBT therapist and counsellor. She said: “There’d be situations where I would be talking to someone and they’d really need a hug, but obviously, you’d have professional boundaries in place and it wouldn’t have been appropriate. “It was just a really natural thing. One client had finished her final session and we had agreed that she wasn’t my patient anymore so we hugged goodbye. She said to me that she’d wanted to do that for a long time and I thought ‘me too’.” Looking into cuddle therapy, which she said was increasing in popularity in 2014, Natasha took a training course. By 2015, she was a qualified cuddler and started taking on new patients for cuddle sessions. Natasha provides a minimum session of one hour but said most people go for at least two hours, sometimes longer if they are receiving more than one type of therapy. She said: “I always give people a hug on the doorstep when they arrive and then they’ll come in and relax, and we’ll have an initial chat about what brings them here. After that, I’ll put on some ambient music and we’ll have a cuddle on my cuddle sofa. “It can be daunting coming into a stranger’s house and I can tell the difference in them from arriving to leaving. The first hug they might be angled away from me but when we’re hugging goodbye, I can get my head in between their neck and shoulders and you can almost feel that a weight has been lifted from them.” There is not one type of person that visits Natasha for cuddles, but she says that a lot of her clients are caregivers. She said: “There’s all sorts of people who come for a cuddle, from people who have moved away from home for the first time and just want a mum hug all the way to people in their 80s. “I’m inclusive of all genders and all ages. I get a lot of clients who are the carers of their family and they are so busy looking after other people, and probably giving the hugs and support to other people, that they don’t have that for themselves. “A lot of people that come to see me are generally people are the big spoon in the life – they take care of others and don’t want to show a vulnerable side to people because they don’t want people to worry that they can’t cope. “I get a lot of carers, a lot of NHS staff, a lot of mums, a lot of people that are in a world where they have to be the strong one in the situation and they just want to be able to come here and let their guard down.” Natasha’s priority is to make people feel at ease when they arrive as she said it can be “nerve wracking” turning up at someone’s house for a hug. Setting out clear boundaries prior to meeting, the therapist has said that the patients she has welcomed into her home have all been respectful. She added: “I always say to people that when your body relaxes, your tummy might crumble and mine might too, but that people don’t need to worry about it. Sometimes people fall asleep and they might snore or fart, it’s just natural things that happen. It’s happened twice where someone has got an erection and that’s fine, I have boundaries and we’ll just change position. “I want people to feel reassured that, as soon as they get in, they feel comfortable.” Despite the unconventional therapy, when Natasha first took on cuddle clients, she said her family were completely “unsurprised” and the step from CBT therapy to cuddle therapy was a “natural evolution”. While Natasha focuses her time on a holistic approach for treating people, she noted that there is also neuroscience behind cuddles. According to the 44-year-old, physical touch activates the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex and cuddling releases oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. Now, Natasha also does EMDR therapy and is a mental health swim host, and has clients travel from all over the globe to receive her hugs. She said: “Working from Coventry is brilliant because I’m only nine minutes on the train from Birmingham Airport and people come to visit me from all over. I get a client from Belgium, someone from Ireland and people from all over the UK who come to see me. “I wanted to find a sofa bed that just looked like a big comfy sofa for cuddle sessions. I’d started off with a big L shaped sofa but after about five years, it was sagging a bit, there’d been a lot of healing done on that sofa and it was time for a new one. “Now I have a sofa bed in my living room that I use as my cuddle sofa. It’s in the living room and it’s used for everyday life, watching TV with my partner, having people round and also for my work.” Breaking down the taboo around cuddle therapy, Natasha hopes more people will embrace the alternative treatment. She added: “As it’s become more popular, more people are becoming qualified as cuddlers and I think that’s great. “I’ve had comments online before of people thinking it’s weird or not understanding but there are other things we accept in society that are much more intimate than cuddles, like massages. “It’s not weird, it’s actually a really lovely thing to be able to make another soul feel better for a while.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Meet the professional cuddler charging £70-an-hour to hug ‘the big spoons in life’ New warnings about ‘concerning’ rise in at-home cosmetic dentistry What is ‘beer tanning’ and why are experts warning against it?

The massive drone attack across multiple regions of Russia into Wednesday marked Ukraine's largest attack on Russian soil since the start of Vladimir Putin's invasion 18 months ago. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is one of 25 such attacks on Russia during August as Kyiv increases its attempts to "bring the war home" to Russia and destroy equipment that would be used on the frontline in Ukraine. The MoD believes that Russian air defences are likely having difficulty detecting and destroying the drones, given the number of drones hitting their targets. For Ukraine, their own mission to down drones coming from Russia, a constant menace throughout the war, is being added by the US-made 'Vampire' rocket system. The Vampire consists of a laser-guided-missile launcher that houses four rockets and can quickly be installed in a military – or even civilian – truck with a flat bed. It can fire BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System rockets outfitted with fuses designed to detonate near a drone. The Vampire, which stands for Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletised ISR Rocket Equipment, has one major aim. As the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for policy Colin Kahl, put it, the launcher “uses small missiles, essentially, to shoot [drones] out of the sky.” The laser-guided element allows it to be very accurate, without being as hi-tech as other systems being sent by Western allies. There are other advantages to the system too. The cost per missile is about $27,000 (£21,000), which is expensive for a single munition but relatively cheap for guided missile. The fact that it can be added to most flatbed trucks is useful, with Ukraine's ground forces having proved resourceful in adapting a number of vehicles to house the weapons they need. Air defence systems like the Vampire give Ukrainian forces the option to swiftly – and relatively cheaply – combat Russia's kamikaze drones, offering them the ability to keep their most advanced anti-aircraft systems for areas where they are most important. With many air defence systems built to take down airplanes, helicopters and missiles, small drones can prove a costly problem. While there is scope for advanced technology drones to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce, but smaller ones can cost thousands or even hundreds of pounds. Missiles used to shoot them down can also cost hundreds of thousands, making the four-barrel Vampire rocket launcher system a relative steal. The Pentagon has confirmed that the Vampire, which is also able to strike ground units, is now being used by Ukrainian forces. “Initial Vampire systems have been delivered and are in operation by Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the Pentagon’s Acquisition and Sustainment Office said in statement. The company that makes the counter-drone system, L3Harris Technologies Inc have said that four of the 14 systems that make up a $40m contract signed in January, arrived in Ukraine in the middle of the year. The contract calls for the other 10 to be delivered by the end of 2023. While the bulk of US military support to Ukraine comes from existing stock, the contact for the Vampires comes directly under the billions of dollars set forth as part of Washington's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It is the first time the system has been deployed in a combat zone – and it will prove extremely useful to Ukraine in a conflict where drones are playing an increasingly important role. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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