WORDS of wisdom from his grandfather helped a graduate with an eye for design win a major award - and a job.

University of Teesside graduate Nick Palfreyman's design of an eye-drop dispenser has won the Helen Hamyln Development Award of £3,000 and the Whittington Award, a travel bursary of £1,000.

It has also led to a leading job as an industrial designer with Gateshead firm Virdev Design.

Mr Palfreyman, 21, of Sunderland, said: "It was my granddad, Bill Render, who suggested the idea of developing an eye-dropper which improves the measurement, accuracy and efficiency of dispensing eye-drops."

Mr Render lost the use of one of his arms after an industrial accident, and a stroke left him suffering from poor mobility.

His plight inspired Mr Palfreyman to design an eyedrop dispenser that people can use with one hand.

He said: "My granddad, like a lot of elderly people, suffers from eye-related problems that require eye-drops up to four times a day.

"He can use one of his arms and he said he would prefer to administer his own eye-drops because, at the moment, my grandmother does it for him.

"To administrate eye-drops, the user holds the eye open with one hand and squeezes the bottle in the other - there is no way this is possible for my granddad or many other elderly people.

"If the person lives on their own, then a nurse comes out to administrate the drops.

"Hopefully my product will give elderly people more freedom."