LONG-distance travel can be a pain in the neck - but not if a Darlington market stallholder has anything to do with it.

Mrs Vera Revill has patented a pillow to allow travellers to relax or snooze in comfort and has high hopes it will enable her to expand her one-woman harvest grain company.

Four years ago she came up with a heated cushion to ease aches and pains and since then she has sold 6,000 from her unit at the High Row entrance to the indoor market.

But her copyright has been infringed as other entrepreneurs jumped on the bandwagon.

"About ten different companies have had a spin-off from my previous products. That is why I went to the trouble of registering this one," she told the D&S Times. "Now there is no question mark hanging over it. It is my design, based on a wooden Japanese version."

The pillow aims to support and protect the neck and Mrs Revill points out: "It is particularly good for children in cars, it stops their heads rolling from side to side if they fall asleep.

"I took one to Greece and used it on a plain, a train, a boat and a bus. I even had a woman sitting next to me ask if I would send one abroad to her. Some people even take them to bed and claim they get a better night's sleep."

She has a sewing machine at the unit where she stitches away between chatting to customers and she reckons each of the non-allergenic pillows takes about an hour to make.

A sprightly pensioner whose looks belie her 65 years, Mrs Revill says: "I suppose I'm proof it is never too late to start again."