A YEAR ago Alex Walster was working in a chicken factory.

Today he diagnoses life-threatening diseases such as meningitis, cancer and HIV in humans - and earns a staggering £2,000 a year less. It is a desperate state of affairs which will concern all our readers.

Now a campaign has been launched to fight for a fair pay deal for Alex and his hundreds of colleagues in hospitals in Southampton and Winchester.

Winchester MP Mark Oaten has vowed to raise the matter in Parliament.

The pay scale for a university graduate bio-medical scientist starts at just £9,000 in Hampshire.

Recently a scientist spent two hours diagnosing the lethal meningitis virus at 3am. He helped save a life but got paid just £13 call out for his efforts.

Hospital bosses say the Government must now step in to recognise the unsung National Health Service heroes.

For the full story see pages 6&7 of tonight's Daily Echo

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.