Meet Buddy! He's a feisty feline who's taken the medical world by storm with his unique ability to help patients recover from cancer. The chocolate-faced Siamese with big blue eyes is being hailed a hero by his proud owner, Dr Maureen Burke, and those he's treated.

Maureen, a respected psychologist at the University of Queensland, believes the power of pets is unlimited which is why her beloved moggy is featured on her self-help audio tape BUDDY TARGETS CANCER.

On the 30-minute tape, Maureen encourages the listener to lie back and relax while Buddy - who responds with a series of meows - "goes on the prowl".

"I tell the patient to imagine Buddy is slowly stalking and killing the rogue cancer cells in their body," explains Maureen. "And then they're asked to visualise their own treatment - like chemotherapy - and watch as their white blood cells finish off the job. It's all about being in control. It's so important to believe you can get better."

Buddy agrees. During our interview with Maureen, the eight-year-old cat gave his side of the story several times with discerning meows.

"I'm telling you, he is a special and wonderful cat," says Maureen, 60, who conducted a study of 12 cancer patients of varying ages and levels of sickness who listened to the tape. Her research was the first of its kind in the world. In fact, she was asked to present her findings to last year's European Congress of Psychology in London. She told the packed gathering all but one of the patients thought Buddy had contributed to their recovery.

Maureen says, "They said the tape enhanced their ability to visualise and attack the cancer and believed it really empowered them to do something for themselves. All felt more relaxed."

"Cancer is a life-threatening disease and dealing with it is a serious matter. So it's rather special and entertaining, in a sense, to use Buddy, who has a distinctive meow, to talk to participants and engage them in activity. If there is some humour attached to listening to the tape, then that's a good thing," adds Maureen, who watched helplessly as her husband of 11 years, Phil Hack, died from cancer in 1995 aged 72.

"I was devastated. It was so unexpected and tough to deal with," recalls Maureen.

But her life took an upward turn when she met Buddy six months later. "A friend told me I should get an animal to help me through the ordeal. That's when I first laid eyes on Buddy as a new-born kitten. He was lying in the basket and, when I held him, I instantly felt his warmth and love," explains Maureen of her feline friend. "One of the great joys about having Buddy was there was a living creature in the house again, somebody who needed and loved me, someone who communicated with me in his own way and made me laugh - reminding me there's joy in life."

But it wasn't until a few years ago that Maureen decided to try to place Buddy's talents on tape in order to help a close friend, Lynda Rackley, 53, after she was diagnosed with life-threatening breast cancer. "As a psychologist I had made many relaxation and visualisation tapes in the past so I took it a step farther and used Buddy on the tape. This was a one-off and only intended to help Lynda. "I put the microphone to Buddy's face and asked if he would like to do his part to help our friend Lynda and he went 'meow' straight away!"

Says Lynda, whose cancer is in remission, "I knew pets had been used for therapy but certainly not in this fashion. I was glad when I received the tape from Maureen because I was going through a really stressful time with the chemotherapy. "I listened to the tape daily and I found it so helpful. Hearing Buddy's voice made me relax and feel at peace through such a trying time. As Maureen encourages on the tape, I imagined that Buddy was attacking the cancer - and it seemed to have a positive effect. I'm not saying Buddy healed me but he certainly helped," says a grateful Lynda.

And, according to Maureen, that's the main aim of the tapes featuring the sleek feline. "BUDDY TARGETS CANCER is not a miracle cure," she insists, "but rather another weapon in the fight against the disease."

Since that first, friendship-inspired tape, Buddy has been back in the studio working on a follow-up. He now features prominently on Maureen's new motivational tape, BUDDY TARGETS FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF.

She points out, "Low self-esteem is often the underlying cause of patients seeking counselling for such things as anxiety, depression and stress."