TWO North-East inventors say they have had worldwide interest in their device that combats wrinkles.

As exclusively revealed in The Northern Echo, the two inventors, eye surgeon Jim Haslam and GP Gordon Dougal, believe they have found a way of making wrinkles disappear by using light therapy.

After the story appeared on the BBC Online website, the two doctors were inundated with inquiries from countries such as Turkey, Italy, Germany, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.

Mr Haslam, who works at Darlington Memorial Hospital, said "We have done lots of media interviews, I have appeared on Italian television, Gordon has been on South African radio and we have done quite a lot on local radio."

Now they are looking at signing distribution and marketing deals with partners around the world.

Sales of their light therapy device, called Restorelite, have exceeded 800 units, despite it costing £110 including postage.

Mr Haslam said: "We are very pleased at the way things are going."

The two medics have already shown how an infra-red device, called Virulite, can clear up cold sores twice as quickly as conventional creams.

Now, after a successful trial in the North-East, the doctors have demonstrated that the same frequency of light can smooth facial wrinkles.

One prospective business partner in Turkey has said he was interested in ordering 1,000 units.

The doctors said that anyone using the device for a few minutes every day can expect to see facial wrinkles vanish as the surrounding skin becomes more supple.

Dr Dougal, a GP in Peterlee, east Durham, has a degree in electronic engineering as well as medicine.

He has been researching the therapeutic properties of infra-red light for years and believes more applications are possible.

As part of a trial, the doctors recruited a number of North-East women who agreed to use the device for at least ten minutes a day, concentrating on the skin around their eyes.

Photographs taken at the start and at the end of treatment showed a clear reduction in wrinkling in most cases.

Ninety-five per cent of volunteers said they saw an improvement.

One of the volunteers, Helen Illingworth, who works at a doctor's surgery in Spennymoor, County Durham, said: "It is absolutely wonderful and really easy to use."

The units are put together by Beta Electronics, in Stockton. However, there have been supply problems because of delays in obtaining electronic components from China.

Mr Haslam said: "A letter of apology about the delay is going out with the units. We are getting the units to customers within four weeks."

The inventors plan to publish a scientific paper early next year showing how the therapy works.