"Lourdes' reputation rests on an event 150 years ago when a young shepherd girl said she saw a ghostly figure standing in a cave. The Catholic Church investigated and judged the apparition to be the Virgin Mary.

Consequently the sick and the dying began coming to the cave looking for a miracle.

The church says it has more than 7000 claims of miracles in its archives. Each is investigated thoroughly and so far sixty-seven miracles have been validated by the church.

At Lourdes, Europe correspondent Jane Hutcheon met Tom Doherty who has three big reasons to seek divine intervention. "I've got three children, two with cystic fibrosis and I've got him with Downs Syndrome... the cure's in the water and in the well."

Mr Doherty has returned to Lourdes 20 times and says he's 110% convinced that a
miracle could cure his sons.

This optimism stems from much publicised cases where people say their lives have been changed dramatically.

Peadar Clarke, a multiple sclerosis sufferer was given only four years to live back in the 1980's. Until, he says, the Virgin Mary appeared in his hotel room in Lourdes.

"Our lady was smiling at me, I remember smiling back," Clarke told Hutcheon. "It was when my hands were out that I realised my hands were out and I'm not shaking and I realised I'm standing!"

Since then Clarke's fathered two children. He's returned to Lourdes more than 50 times leading other pilgrims in search of divine help."