PUPILS who find biology lessons hard to stomach are being helped by a home-grown tract.

The youngsters of Canon Lee school,at Clifton, York, are being helped in their studies by a digestive system - hand-knitted by the great-aunt of their biology teacher, Nick Hanysz.

Betty Snelgrove, of Crosslands Road, Fulford, is used to knitting squares for Women's Institute blankets.

Her latest project was hard for many of her friends to swallow.

She said: "I told my great- nephew that I wasn't very good at knitting, but he got hold of a pattern from an old biology book and I got started.

"He's thrilled with it and I think it will help his pupils. They'll certainly remember this more than a picture in a book."

The system will be used by Nick to display how the body's digestive tract works.

Mrs Snelgrove said: "I've done virtually nothing else for the past three weeks but knit this, and it's caused a lot of interest from the people I know.

"After Nick picked it up he had that and a skeleton in his car. I don't know what the police would have thought if they'd stopped him."

Updated: 09:31 Monday, November 04, 2002