Dr Joseph Chandy, a 58-year old GP (general practitioner) who runs a medical centre in Peterlee near Durham, claims that Mother Teresa healed Norman Imms of "serious and incurable" illness. "It is nothing short of a miracle," he said. Dr Chandy, a former registrar at Liverpool Children's Hospital, made his claim in a letter to Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor as head of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

According to a report published in the Sunday Telegraph today, the letter has been forwarded to the Sacred Congregation for the Causes For Saints, which is sifting the evidence that is expected to lead to Mother Teresa's beatification, the first step to canonisation, next year. Since Mother Teresa's death two years ago in Calcutta, her order has received a number of claimsfrom people claiming to have been healed miraculously through her intercession. This is thought to be the first from Britain, the weekly said in a report.

Dr Chandy said that 54-year-old Imms had suffered from "paranoid schizophrenia, depressive psychosis and psychopathy from the early years of his adult life".

Imms was examined by numerous doctors and consultant psychiatrists and prescribed powerful drugs to control depression, hallucinations, paranoia and aggressive outbursts. Dr Chandy said in his experience, the type of mental illness suffered by Imms never disappeared, but could be contained. "A total cure, as in this case, is unimaginable," he said, "There is no scientific explanation. It is a miracle, a gradual one. It would stand up to the most severe scientific scrutiny," he said.

"In case of severe and long-term illness, a complete cure would be very rare indeed. It sounds highly unusual for someone to recover so well and it is very welcome," said Paul Farmer, National SchizophreniaFellowship spokesman last night. Imms said last week that he had suffered from terrifying delusions, suicidal feelings and had become convinced that his doctors and his wife Kathy were trying to kill him. Imms began to improve after he took up voluntary work and became a co-worker of the Missionaries of Charity, collecting funds and donations locally.

He contacted Mother Teresa and became a friend, telephoning her every Christmas. They met, exchanged gifts and prayed together on ten occasions in London, Belgium and Rome, and his health gradually improved.

At their last meeting in Rome in May 1997, four months before her death, she told him he was better. For the past two years, Imms said he had been "completely well".