ON the day it was confirmed that heart disease is on the increase, a health campaign has been extended to another part of the region.

A Chance To Live, a campaign founded by The Northern Echo to improve treatment for heart patients, has largely succeeded in its aims.

Since its launch in 1999, heart disease treatment for patients in the region has been transformed.

But with signs that heart disease is affecting more and more people and concerns about obesity and lack of exercise, the emphasis of the campaign has shifted to preventing heart disease.

That shift has not come too soon if a survey of teenage pupils in Darlington is anything to go by.

A questionnaire compiled by Mark Burton, who runs the Darlington Community Hub website, found that only 22 per cent of 423 teenagers questioned took part in physical activity outside school and more than half ate unhealthy foods for lunch.

Yesterday, the British Heart Foundation estimated that the number of people living with coronary heart disease is rising, reaching a record 2.7m.

Earlier this year, Health Secretary John Reid heaped praise on A Chance To Live after it mobilised 4,000 people to take part in The Great North Walk, near Wolsingham, County Durham, last summer.

The campaign began as a protest against excessively long waiting lists for heart patients who needed bypass surgery.

This year the campaign's target of no more than three month's wait for bypass surgery was within reach after massive investment in regional hospitals.

After the campaign was backed by Wear Valley District Council, Durham Dales Primary Care Trust and Northumbrian Water last year, there have been dramatic increases in the number of people in the Wear Valley and Teesdale taking part in physical activities.

Now Darlington Primary Care Trust and Darlington Borough Council have decided to join the campaign, pledging to do their bit to turn back the rising tide of heart disease.