'Our drinks were spiked when we were 15 years old'

When Isabelle went to a party with her friends on the Isle of Man two years ago, she never imagined she would be unsafe.

Aged 15 at the time, she recalled how her drink was spiked after handing it over to someone there.

"By the time I got it back obviously something had been put in it," she explained.

Isabelle and her friends have taken action to try to prevent the same thing happening to others.

Recalling what happened to her, Isabelle said: "Thank God I was with a lot of friends who took care of me, but it could have ended really badly if I wasn't."

Her classmate Daisy said she went through a similar ordeal.

"You are at a party - you're having a laugh. You're with your friends. You think you're gonna be safe," she said, adding: "And then suddenly it's just blackout."

For both girls, the experience left a lasting impression.

They were shocked by how easily it can happen, and how little is said about it.

This inspired them to doing something about it.

Alongside four other students at Ballakermeen High School, they have taken part in a business challenge run by the charity Junior Achievement.

Team Valoris created PureSip - a biodegradable drinking straw with a built-in test strip that changes colour when commonly used spiking drugs are detected.

Daisy said a lot of their marketing was about "bringing awareness to the issue rather than selling a product", adding that "it isn't spoken about enough".

She pointed to UK figures suggesting 1.2 million adults had reported having their drink spiked within the last year.

PC Louise Kennaugh, part of the Isle of Man Constabulary schools education team, said: "I think it's brilliant - they've picked something that potentially could do some good to our community."

She added that "anything that can help people - protect them, safeguard them - can only be a good thing."

She explained that cases were often difficult to prove since investigations relied heavily on medical evidence.

Kennaugh said the straw could act as an early indicator, helping people make quicker decisions about their safety.

Turning the drinking straw idea into a reality posed a big challenge for Team Valoris, which needed to find the right technology to test for spiking drugs.

Johan, 17, said they first considered litmus paper but "the drugs that are normally used for spiking are the same pH as the drink, so that was ruled out".

The breakthrough came late at night.

"I had a one o'clock in the morning thing where the idea hit me," he explained.

The final product included a tear-away section that exposed testing material inside the straw.

When ripped off, if the drink is spiked, it turns dark orange.

They also stressed that drink spiking was not limited to alcohol or specific groups.

"It can even be food," Johan said, adding: "It takes one second for someone to just walk past and just drop it in and that's it."

Following the end of the competition, the team said they planned to continue developing their idea and sell the straws to different venues.

Junior Achievement's chief executive Sue Cook said the project highlighted how young people were increasingly driven by the social impact of their efforts.

"When it first started it'd be things like selling sweets or selling t-shirts," she explained. "The products and the business ideas are just phenomenal really that are coming through the programme.

"This generation thinks more socially than we do," she said, adding: "I think it's absolutely amazing."

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