The Phoenix chain of stores is set to offer Hamilton businesswomen a new free service aimed at keeping them at the peak of health.

The stores are calling on the expertise of their chemists to go to speak to women at their place of work about potential and actual health issues that affect them.

The service is the brain-child of Pauline Girling, Senior Marketing Manager at the Phoenix Stores Ltd.

"Our pharmacists have a tremendous wealth of knowledge, and it made sense to use this to help and educate people,'' said Ms Girling.

The chain has already had two test runs in companies which have proved popular and are now offering the services to all businesses on the Island.

Sian Bowen, one of the pharmacists involved in the test runs said that they proved to be very popular.

Ms Bowen said: "There are a lot people with a lot of questions out there. As the saying goes, prevention is better than the cure, and a lot of problems that affect women are preventable.'' According to Ms Girling, part of the idea for the project came from women wanting more information on many subjects including complimentary medicine.

And she noticed that many more sensitive issues were difficult to discuss in public with the pharmacist, with perhaps a queue or men standing near by.

Now women can bring the pharmacist into the office in Hamilton during lunch breaks for a "well women'' seminar.

The topics covered include pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), menopause, osteoporosis, urinary tract infections, yeast infections and other medical issues of concern to women.

Ms Bowen said: "There seems to be little knowledge about the medical conditions we discuss, and that women want to know more. These small, intimate seminars allow participants to open up, discuss the medical issues that are concerning them and even what lies ahead in a woman's medical cycle.'' One of the women who took part in the preliminary seminars was Rosalind Perinchief, portfolio accountant at Centre Investment Services. She said: "We talked about everything from mood swings to menopause and how to deal with them using natural herbal remedies. We also touched on stress and its effects in the workplace. I really enjoyed the integrated approach of this seminar and found it very useful.'' Ms Bowen added: "We want people to know that we are more than just a repeat prescription service. We have a wealth of knowledge that we would like people to know about as well.''