A 12-year-old boy told yesterday how his addiction to solvents nearly cost him his life.

Jordan Edwards "buzzed" or sniffed deodorants regularly for six months before collapsing at home and was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack.

Solvent abuse claims the lives of more children than drugs and Jordan said he and children as young as 11 had sniffed them regularly.

After his last sniffing session, his mother found him collapsed on the living room floor of his home in Kenton, Newcastle, gasping for breath. She called an ambulance and he was taken to accident and emergency where he was tested for heart and lung problems.

He eventually confessed he had sprayed three cans of deodorants into the back of his throat after friends got him hooked on the substances.

He described how he smuggled cans of solvents into school in the sleeve of his fleece and jumper before sniffing them between lessons.

Jordan, a pupil at Kenton School, said: "I'd tell other kids not to do it, but I know I wouldn't have listened to them."

His mother Joanne, 28, said: "I want other parents to read Jordan's story so they don't go through what our family has had to."

Kenton headteacher David Pearmain said: "No headteacher can say categorically that no child has ever abused a solvent in their school, but I would know if this was a widespread problem."

Norman Titus, of Childline North-East, said: "Young people often seem to become involved with solvent abuse through peer pressure and it is very difficult to know they are involved until the problem escalates, as in this case, and they need medical attention."

According to the charity Re-Solv, the North-East has the highest death rate nationally from solvent abuse over the past ten years.