AN award-winning student is seeking sponsorship to enable her to take part in a conservation project in Indonesia.

Suzanne McDermott, 19, needs to raise at least £2,000 to take part in Operation Wallacea later this year.

The Cambridge University student, from Tindle Green, Newton Aycliffe, is in the second year of a natural sciences degree course and hopes to specialise in biochemistry.

She wants to take part in an operation in South-East Sulawesi, a remote part of central Indonesia, which contains some of the world's most important, but least studied wildlife.

Suzanne wants to volunteer for the project for a month between August 24 and September 21, if she can raise funding.

She said: "I will undertake a programme of dive training and also a coral reef communities course, after which I join my chosen research project. This will include the mapping of a coral reef, recording coral cover, life forms and damaged areas."

Suzanne won a Royal Geographical Society prize last year for gaining one of the highest scores in the country in her A-level geography examination while at St John's RC School, Bishop Auckland.

She is hoping a local business will sponsor her trip. Anyone who would like to help can contact her on (01325) 317419 or 07813 778146.