BURY-based Dr Andrew Demetriou is a specialist with a very rare boast.

He is the only GP in Bury, and one of just a handful in the North-West, to practise the form of alternative treatment called homeopathy.

Dating back more than 200 years, it works on the principle that 'like treats like', meaning an illness is treated with a medicine which could produce similar symptoms in a healthy person.

On this basis, for instance, onion is the main ingredient in a homeopathic remedy called Allium cepa. On a healthy person it would cause watery eyes, but in homeopathy it is effectively used to treat people with hayfever who have streaming eyes.

Homeopathy can be used on people of all ages to cure diseases ranging from Colic in children to M.E in the elderly and is also used by a handful of dentists and vets.

Dr Demetriou, of Huntly Mount Medical Centre in Huntly Mount Road, Bury, first heard of the treatment at a course for new medicine in 1985. With its safe use of natural substances in minute doses, he noticed that it left no side effects and in many instances meant that an anti-biotic course of treatment was not needed.

He was so impressed that he returned home and used homeopathic remedies on his wife and three children.

Since then, he has successfully used the method on the hundreds of patients that come to his clinic every week and is one of only 350 doctors in the UK to be fully qualified in homeopathy.

But, despite being medically proven to work, the treatment is only available to patients on a very limited basis. That is why this week is Homeopathy Awareness Week.

Run by The Faculty of Homeopathy, a registered charity since 1965, the overall aim is to pressure the NHS into making the treatment more widely available.

At present there are just five NHS homeopathic hospitals in the UK, with the nearest in Liverpool.

And although the NHS has recently provided the funds to set up four more homeopathic clinics around the country, Dr Demetriou still feels more needs to be done.

He said: "Unless a patient is lucky enough to have a doctor in the area practising homeopathy, they will have to see a private doctor and pay for it. It is our aim to get the treatment offered nationally and for free by the NHS."

When a patient comes to his surgery, Dr Demetriou will asses their individual needs before deciding whether to use the conventional method of treatment or the homeopathic.

But most of the time he will use the homeopathic treatment which his patients are very happy with.

According to Dr Demetriou the treatment has two main advantages.

Firstly, with resistance to illness getting weaker and the present treatments becoming less effective, homeopathy offers an alternative that has been shown to work in a number of publications by many doctors, including Dr Demetriou himself.

It is also a great deal cheaper than present forms of treatment.

He explained that when he compared his figures to his practise partner, who has roughly the same number of patients, he found that his partner's treatments had cost a staggering £125,000 more than his.

Dr Demetriou added: "I want to make people question why this proven form of treatment is not widely available on the NHS."

For more information contact Dr Demetriou on Bury 761 6677 or The Faculty of Homeopathy and the Homeopathic Trust on 020 7566 7800, or at www.trusthomeopathy.org.