AN AWARD winning play, the second in a year by Julie McKiernan, is packing in the crowds in the Lake District.

The Leigh drama lecturer from Charles Street was inspired by the tragedy of Donald Campbell, the speed hero who died when his jet-powered boat Bluebird crashed and sank to the bottom of Coniston in 1967.

So she wrote Tramping Like Mad and entered it in the new Cumbrian Play Competition.

To her delight, Julie, who teaches at Marshall Street College in Leigh, tied for first place and her work, centred on the exploits of Campbell, is being performed at The Theatre by the Lake by the group's professional company.

Earlier this year Julie scooped the new Wigan Pier play writing competition and will see this work performed there early in 2005.

A childhood holiday in the Lakes when she was told about the Campbell tragedy inspired the work at the time Bluebird was being raised from its watery grave.

The title comes from Campbell's last recorded words before the fatal crash, which meant the boat was rolling from side to side.

Julie started writing plays at the age of eight after being influenced by Morecambe and Wise on TV.

She joined Leigh Girls' Grammar School drama group then the after college group at Leigh College where she was encouraged to study for a degree in drama and creative writing.

However by1984 she had had enough of drama and took a job running a play scheme for young children with physical and learning difficulties and delivered meals on wheels.

She helped at the Charles Day Centre clinic at Leigh Infirmary and started writing with the patients which lead her to a job working at The Orchards with adults with learning difficulties.

She went back to Wigan and Leigh College to study and returned there as a tutor in theatre studies, performance studies, community theatre and courses in the community.

Julie, 41, joined a Pemberton drama group and continued her voluntary work.

Leigh's Turnpike Community Theatre asked her to write a play on the 100 years history of Blackpool Tower which was the first of many commissions.

She said: "In 1992 I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and my consultant asked me to write a musical about my hospital experiences. "The Bowel Blues" brought the house down at a regional conference of the National Association of Colitis and Crohn's Disease.

"After that I started to write comedies with my students, joined a scriptwriters' group in Leigh and wrote my first length play "Roman Candles" which was workshopped by the Soho Theatre Company in London.

"My second "Moonstruck" was workshopped by North West playwrights in Manchester who encouraged me to enter the Cumbrian competition.

"I used to go to the Lakes a lot for my holidays and dad told me about Donald Campbell so I thought I would write about a journalist who covered the crash."

The play will be performed until November 3.