YOUNGSTERS throughout Sedgefield borough have been learning about sexual health during National Condom Week.

Teenagers from Newton Aycliffe were just one of a number of groups to take part in projects designed to raise awareness of the benefits of protected sex.

The Include group, made up of 16 to 19-year-olds out of education, employment and training, came up with an idea for a competition.

The group, at Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre, asked pupils from the town's comprehensive schools to come up with ideas for captions which well-known companies could use if they sold condoms.

Project worker Martin Haigh said the response had been encouraging.

He said: "We thought initially that if we got five or ten forms back that would be five or ten more people that were aware of condoms and how they work, but we've had a much bigger response."

Maria Lawson, sexual health worker for Sedgefield Primary Care Trust (PTC), said the event linked in well with work which was being done to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies in the borough.

She said statistics showed teenage pregnancies in the borough are falling.

She said: "One of the reasons we participated in national condom week is to continue not only the sexual health and HIV strategy, but also to help the teenage pregnancy unit.

"If young people I'm working with are getting something out of this it means they're learning something about how to use a condom properly and getting positive sexual health messages, which is really important."