A RADICAL scheme to help schoolkids quit smoking which made national headlines three years ago has had to be abandoned because of lack of funding.

In 1999, the exploits of a Darlington comprehensive school, where children as young as 13 were given special training to help younger pupils resist the temptations of smoking, caused a stir.

At the time Dr Philip Cheung, the Durham University academic behind the scheme claimed it could be a model for schools up and down the UK.

Longfield School teacher Melanie Stubbs, who actually ran the scheme, was also very enthusiastic about the benefits of the scheme.

But three years on the scheme is no longer operating at the 940-pupil school.

And despite repeated efforts by Dr Cheung to secure Government or National Lottery funding to mount a larger pilot scheme in the North-East, no one seems interested.

News that the school scheme has stalled comes a day after all the royal colleges of medicine called for a blanket ban on smoking in public places.

Medics say such a ban could save 150,000 lives long term.

"It seems crazy to me - here is a scheme that was highly successful and has great promise but nobody is prepared to fund it," said Dr Cheung, director of the Centre for Comparative Public Health, in Durham.

"I made several applications to the Department of Health and to the National Lottery Fund. They said they were not interested," he said.

Dr Cheung estimates it would take about £500,000 to run a three-year pilot scheme in a group of North-East schools.

Mrs Stubbs said the collaboration with Dr Cheung had lapsed due to lack of funding but the school was still very active in discouraging smoking and encouraging healthy living.