A PIONEERING healthy living partnership launched yesterday is a model that could be put in place throughout the UK, Health Secretary Alan Milburn told a conference yesterday.

The Northern Echo has teamed up with Wear Valley District Council, Durham Dales Primary Care Trust, and Northumbrian Water to extend our award-winning A Chance To Live campaign into the community.

The community partnership aimed at getting people walking, running and taking more exercise, could help communities all over Britain reduce the death toll from coronary heart disease, said Mr Milburn.

After successfully campaigning to reduce waiting times for heart patients, The Northern Echo is switching the emphasis to heart disease prevention, by encouraging more people to take daily exercise.

During 2003, a series of events - including the revived Great North Walk - will be promoted under the campaign banner.

The programme will also feature other activities, including the Auckland Castle 10k Road Race, The Weardale Triathlon, and The Walking The Way To Health series of walks.

Yesterday's launch event at Bishop Auckland Town Hall was attended by Mr Milburn and North-East athletics legend Brendan Foster.

Mr Milburn told the guests: "What you are doing here is in many ways setting the pace for other parts of the health service, local government and private sector organisations.

"If we can learn lessons from this, we will apply them elsewhere."

Mr Milburn, who has acknowledged the role of The Northern Echo in pressing for better heart patient care after the death of Darlington father-of-two Ian Weir, said: "I can't think of a better cause than the Chance To Live campaign."

Mr Weir, 38, a friend of the Darlington MP, died of a heart attack three years ago after waiting seven months to see a consultant to discuss the date of the heart bypass operation he urgently needed.

"I said one of my top priorities when I walked into my office was to do something about the appalling instance of coronary heart disease. One of the major spurs to doing that was Ian's death."

The Health Secretary said good progress had been made but there was still "a hell of a long way to go."

He praised Durham Dales Primary Care Trust for setting a local target of no heart patient waiting longer than six months for surgery.

"More important is the prevention of heart disease but we have a huge problem in our country," said Mr Milburn.

"You are three times more likely to die from heart disease if you are from an unskilled background and much more likely to die in the North-East than the South-East. So many of those deaths are preventable.

"People have the right to expect that the health service is there when they need it but people also have some responsibility to look after themselves.

"Our job is to provide more opportunities for people to look after themselves - if they do, then the health benefits will be enormous."

* As part of the campaign a 16-page free supplement will be given away with The Northern Echo on Tuesday.

Read more about the A Chance To Live campaign here.