YOUNG design teams from two South Durham schools have a chance to make their mark on an award-winning product which helps to ease the suffering of asthma victims around the world.

Pupils from St John's RC School, Bishop Auckland, and Teesdale Comprehensive School, Barnard Castle, are competing with John Warner School, in Hoddeston, to design the casing of a new inhaler for pharmaceutical company Glaxo Wellcome.

The company's Diskus II dry powder inhaler won a Queen's Award for Technological Innovation last year, in recognition of its revolutionary design.

The pupils, both GCSE and sixth form students, have been asked to remodel the outer case for the inhaler.

The teams had until yesterday to produce their designs using sophisticated computer software provided by the company.

Glaxo plans to have the best designs made up into three-dimensional models by the company's engineers.

Inhalers are an essential part of every asthmatic's life. They are used to ease the symptoms of asthma - breathlessness and wheezing - and most sufferers are required to carry them with them at all times.

The Diskus II project has been set up by the Confederation of British Industry and Glaxo Wellcome's Office of Scientific and Educational Affairs, and follows an initiative led by the Department For Education and the Environment to make computer-aided design software available to secondary schools and sixth form colleges.

Pupils from St John's started by analysing previous asthma products.

Technology co-ordinator Gavin Eccleston said: "We have 12 A-level students working on the project which is being incorporated into their exam work portfolios. We were introduced to the software and have done some sample modelling on screen. Because this is a live project, it is an excellent way of getting into Pro/Desktop.

"The students appreciate the software and the intensity of the project they are doing, and are getting a lot out of it. I am pleased with the software and the students' progress."