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Sussex product design student Alex Williams

Lost crutches are the headache of hospital bosses everywhere, costing the NHS up to £50,000 a year to replace.

But, a Sussex product design student has devised a solution which could stem the flow of haemorrhaging equipment costs. 

"Each pair of crutches costs the NHS £20 but over 50% never get returned. I've worked through several prototypes to strengthen all the different stress points to make a recyclable crutch that's even stronger than the original but at a much reduced cost," said student designer Alex Williams. 

Not only are the crutches cheap to make, adaptable and funky, they are designed to be recycled; patients could simply put the crutches in their recycling box instead of returning them to a hospital. 

Alex's crutches can be viewed at the Sussex product design student's end of year show at The Basement, in Brighton, from today (18 June) until 20 June. 

32 student projects will be on show including the Hunter 01 by Jonathan Casey. Jonathan's hand-held device is set to revolutionise communication within mountain rescue teams to improve the safety of people who need to stay in touch under extreme conditions and span large areas very quickly. 

Also showing his work will be Ben Thomson who has designed Clip to Clip, a range of fasteners designed to simplify the disassembly of electronic products to reduce landfill through easy recycling and reuse.  If brought to manufacture, Ben's clips could transform dramatically the manufacture and recycling of electrical goods.

The Product Design final year show private view is on Friday 19 June from 5-8pm at The Basement, Argus Lofts, 24 Kensington St, Brighton, BN1 4AJ 

For more information go to the Product Design degree show website.