BY MICHAEL BRESLIN

Julia Donaghy, a part-time nurse from Kesh and her three team colleagues are remarkable women: they have come up with a brand new speculum, a medical instrument that is regularly used for internal examination of women, which, compared with the existing model, is patient-friendly to the nth degree,

As a reward for all their toil, their invention was runner-up in the recent 2007 All-Ireland Student Awards, earning the team 3,000 euro which will now be ploughed back into developing it.

As inventors go, Julia is on the younger side of things. She is an undergraduate at Queen's University, having completed a one year course last month in endoscopy and related procedures. She is now awaiting her examination results but, given the support she and the other three team members got from their lecturers, Daphne Martin and Leontia Hoy in designing their new-look speculum, her prospects at passing would appear to be good.

So, why the invention?

"It really stemmed from feedback in talking to the female patients. The existing speculum is on the large size and is made either of metal or plastic and far from flexible. The new one is made from a flexible yet rigid plastic, it's inflatable with an in-built light source and completely d isposable, unlike some of the existing ones".

The team began putting their heads together after Christmas and submitted their illustrated design to the Students Awards judging panel in April: "The prototype is still to be made', she explained, "and we're meeting this week with Invest's Innovation Adviser".

The other team members are, Jacqueline Erskine, the team leader and Lindsey Crawford, from Antrim, and Claire Sneddon, from County Down: "From fairly early on, we went home and came up with our idea and the excellent thing about it was all four of us were thinking along the same lines'.

Julia has no doubt but that their new invention has great potential. The speculum is used or gynae procedures, in sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, and in Child Abuse and Rape Inquiry suites and, of course, in surgical procedures.

"In 2006, there were 260,000 smears taken by means of a speculum, and that represented only 70 per cent whereas the target is 80 per cent, so the demand for it is definitely out there".

In the Student Awards' finals, Julia and her team were up against 131 competitors and made it to the finals where they were up against three other.

So, as she awaits her examination results, and that Invest meeting, for Julia it's back to part-time work in the Endoscopy Unit of the day Procedure Unit in the Erne hospital. As to the future, regardless of her invention - which the team intends franchising out - she is thinking hard about undertaking a Diploma course in administering chemotherapy.

Through the 'Herald', she thanked her Ward manager, Marie Teresa McDermott and her mentors, Bernie Cox and Evelyn Creighton and all her colleagues for their support.