CLIVE Edwards is a man with a mission. As a former eczema sufferer, he is convinced steroid creams routinely prescribed by GPs often make the condition worse.

And during his long campaign for tighter controls, he has found plenty of evidence to back up his belief.

In the last few months, he has been out among shoppers in Poole handing out information about alternative treatment for eczema.

"In the last four months, I've met more than 70 people on repeat prescriptions for steroid creams. I've seen people with scaly skin and permanent scarring," he said.

"Steroid creams should be given for a maximum of five days in children and not given to anyone over long periods of time, yet I've met one little girl who was on the strongest steroids every day for five years.

"One man in the New Forest had been on the creams for 42 years, since he was three days old."

Clive himself had terrible eczema from childhood and feels bitter about the fact that he was given repeat prescriptions for steroid creams.

He maintains that they only treat the irritation, not the underlying cause of eczema, and that their long-term use can cause cracked skin, bleeding, irritation, pain, abnormal hair growth, obesity and loss of natural immunity.

"I was on the creams on and off for 23 years, from when I was two weeks old. I was used as a medical experiment," he claimed.

When he was in his twenties, Clive decided he needed to find an alternative.

"I was feeling desperate. I saw a little health shop and went in. The first thing the chap said to me was: 'You've been on those blasted creams, haven't you?'."

By using a combination of homeopathic and herbal treatment, Clive ridded himself of his eczema in seven months. It has never returned.

Since then, he has been running an eczema help group (see below for details), spreading the word to others.

"What's kept me going is my anger, and the fact that I don't want children to go through what I did all my life. My main concern is that people are going through hell," he said.

"These prescriptions are also losing the health service millions.

"In the last eight years, I reckon I've got more than 2,000 people off these creams in Bournemouth, Brighton and Poole.

"It has benefited their lives and must have saved the health service £50,000."

Among those helped by Clive are nine-year-old twins Carly and Jordan McGill, of Parkstone, Poole, who had been on repeat prescriptions for steroid creams since they were babies.

"They had longer hair on their legs than I did and stretch marks on their knees. Nobody had warned us.

"I didn't realise how much harm the creams were doing until I met Clive," said their mother Stacey.

She stopped using steroids on the twins about six months ago. Although their eczema has not disappeared, their skin has improved since they started using antibiotics and herbal cream.

For further information, send your name and address, printed clearly, with three first class stamps to Clive Edwards, Eczema Help Group, 9 Charlotte Court, Old Milton Road, New Milton BH25 6DT.