A 12-YEAR-OLD with a passion for medicine has been to London to pitch his idea for a drone carrying vital equipment as a way of getting help to patients more quickly.

Morgan McNally, whose love of TV programmes like 24 Hours in A&E has inspired him to want to become a paramedic or doctor, came up with the idea for a competition aimed at getting young people to think of things that could make the world a better place.

The 12-year-old, who is from Sherburn Village, near Durham, was one of 10 finalists, shortlisted from almost 3,000 entrants across the country.

The Belmont Community School pupil went to London on Saturday to pitch his idea for an adapted drone, which could be used to carry vital medical equipment like defibrillators or medicines to get to patients more quickly in congested areas.

He said: “I love watching TV shows in the control room and you can see how the ambulance service can struggle with response times.

“That’s how I came up with the idea for a drone which could carry a defibrillator and medical supplies to get first aid to people across a busy city like London.

“It’s not that hard to make so I think it could be doable.”

Morgan goes to his school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) club and found out about the competition through his teacher.

After reaching the final, he went to the Science Museum in London to pitch his idea to judges of the Young Imagineers competition, organised by energy company Equinor.

Vicki McNally, his mum, who went with him, said: “It was just amazing. The whole experience of going down was brilliant and they made us feel really welcome.

“We're so proud of him. He really believes in his idea and he is really passionate about becoming a paramedic or being in the industry when he's older. He loves finding out about medicine and medical equipment."

Sophie Banham, who is a wind farmer developer at Equinor and was one of the judges, said: “Young Imagineers is all about celebrating the UK’s most creative young minds in STEM and what we saw on the day from all of our 10 finalists, blew all the judges away.

The winning idea was for a micro robotic "spider" which would be programmed to surgically repair and cure parts of the brain to prevent brain damage after trauma.