A SHOW with a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire format has been launched with the goal of a long and healthy life replacing cash prizes.

It is being launched on Teesside, which has a history of bad health, and targeted at 30 schools in areas where coronary heart disease is a well-known killer.

The audiences for the 30-minute-long matinee shows will be nine to 11-year-olds in schools in Middlesbrough, Redcar, Hartlepool and Stockton.

Val Abbas, health promotion advisor with the Teesside Health Action Zone, which is behind the project, said: "Obviously, with this age group you are not going to deliver a heavy message, but emphasise the positive side, the things they can do to improve their own health."

Teesside Health Action Zone has teamed up with a professional drama company to highlight, on school hall stages, the drawbacks of poor eating habits, smoking, and lack of physical exercise - all factors that can contribute to coronary heart disease.

Questions asked by the Chris Tarrant-like quiz master will reveal each contestant's state of health, the optional answers getting over the message about a healthy lifestyle.

There will be an emphasis on encouraging the young audience to take part in the 30-minute long performances.

The role-playing is being performed by a leadership training organisation called Team Players, with experienced actors and actresses, backed by the Oddsocks Productions professional touring theatre company.

Ms Abbas said: "We have given a brief to the drama company on the kind of message we want to make, and they will use their own expertise to put in the kind of format they use.

"We have a poor record for coronary heart disease and cancers, and anything that we can do, particularly for young people to change their health behaviour, can only be positive."

She hopes the children will take the healthy message home to their parents.

Teesside Health Action Zone, an NHS, council, community and business group partnership, is driving a seven year programme to reduce health inequalities in the area and modernise the delivery of health care and related services