A TEAM of North-East students has beaten off strong competition from across the country to win a prestigious charity challenge.

An eight-strong Durham University squad has won the Morgan Stanley University Community Impact Challenge (UCIC), pipping teams from six other UK institutions to win £5,000 for Durham Area Disability Leisure Group (DADLG) – a charity which helps children with disabilities.

The students conducted a feasibility study into establishing a service helping young adults with disabilities into employment.

The team, Deepesh Patel, 20; Alison Robb, 19; Laura Harrisson, 21; Jonathan Shevlane, 20; Jennifer Chan, 19; Frederic Chen, 22; Kobe Chow, 19; and Andrea Jesudason, 20 (ALL CORRECT), have won a day at Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm, which will conclude with a dinner with senior managers.

Mr Patel, the team captain, said: “From the onset, our team was keen to take on this project because we wanted to make a real, long-term difference in our local community.

“By spending a lot of time with the charity and its members, we came to understand what the charity needed and this really helped us to come up with solutions which would have an impact and be sustainable.”