HOMOEOPATHY has been available within the National Health Service since it was formed in the 1940s - and not a lot of people know that.

One group which does and is trying to spread the word is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and hoping that in its next ten years it will see more homoeopathic therapies replacing conventional medicine.

The North Cotswold Homoeopathic Group was formed in 1990 when Marion Paterson, a Winchcombe woman with an interest in the subject, held a public meeting to bring together like-minded folk.

That first meeting attracted a good number of members and a decade later, the group is still growing in strength as interest in complementary medicine continues to flourish.

Its main aims are still to share interest and knowledge and to promote the use of homoeopathy with the National Health Service.

Current chairman Chris Adamson has a particular interest in the issue of homoeopathy within the NHS. Now retired, she was a registered nurse and says she has been persuaded to look more closely at the benefits of complementary therapies.

Homoeopathy is defined in the dictionary as treatment of a disease by small doses of something which in a healthy person would produce symptoms of the disease - sort of milder treatments which boost the body's own defence mechanisms.

Stressing the word "complementary" instead of "alternative" therapy, Mrs Adamson describes homoeopathy as "effective, non toxic and complementary to mainstream medicine".

She said many people had joined the group dissatisfied with the side effects of their medication. She also claimed that the NHS's own figures state that 70% of people in hospital are there because of their medication.

"I used to be very much a sceptic," she said, but she has had her mind changed. Not only has she worked in one of the NHS homoeopathic clinics, in Bristol, curing children of eczema where mainstream medicine failed, she has seen a family member's spectacular recovery from rheumatoid arthirits.

"I could give you no end of anecdotes," she said. "When I saw it work, it was very hard to work in mainstream medicine and not to preach homoeopathy."

So, she has joined the group to help spread the word. "The Queen and the Queen Mother use it and it has been used for centuries, so it should be more available to all of us," she said.

"The medication is also cheap, so it's cost-effective, effective against the disease and friendly to the user."

The group believes homoeopathy should be used in the first instance of illness, instead of as a last resort, and hopes the new millennium will see more doctors willing to use the therapies.

As well as its campaigning work, the group meets so members can learn about and discuss all types of complementary therapies.

"It must be quite stimulating because five of our members have gone on to become homoeopathic practitioners themselves," said Mrs Adamson.

The group meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at Winchcombe library.

There is usually a speaker talking on a topical issues, for instance the last meeting heard about 'flu remedies.

There is also a study group for those who want to delve deeper into certain areas.

Anyone is welcome to go along and learn more and join in with the meetings.

Contact Mrs Adamson on 01242 680469 or another member, Sylvia, on 01242 673788.