A PIONEERING pain relief device shortlisted for a top award has caught the eye of Home Secretary Jack Straw.

The Blackburn MP attended the official opening of the Saturn Centre, Challenge Way, Blackburn, a centre of excellence for small businesses with innovative and technologically advanced products.

And he gave the thumbs-up to Advanced Pain Management Ltd, run by Clitheroe health club proprietor Vicky Lee, which manufactures the XPain TSE device.

The machine, the size of a pack of cards, fires electric impulses into the spinal cord to attack the root of pain.

It has been on trial in 70 hospitals and hospices througout the North West and was featured on television with former Blackburn Rovers ace Graeme Le Saux, who uses it to overcome pain from a persistent ankle injury. Now it has so impressed the Government that it has been shortlisted for a special millennium award for new inventions.

The Home Secretary met the members of APM staff and said he was impressed with XPain's track record in pain-relief.

Vicky Lee said the device was "probably one of the most important breakthroughs in new technology."

And it would "save the Government millions of pounds through reduced days off work due to persistent pain."

She said: "XPain gives fast, effective drug-free pain-relief from persistent aches and pains, without side-effects, giving hours or even days of relief.

"It can be used to alleviate migraine, sports and old injury, period pain and backache.

"It is now attracting worldwide interest and certainly caught the eye of the Home Secretary."

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