PEOPLE in the North-East will be among the first in the country to benefit from NHS personal trainers.

The innovative pilot scheme was announced on the day that a report showed some progress has been made in reducing health inequalities in England.

Three NHS organisations in County Durham, Teesside, and Tyne and Wear/Northumberland, will receive additional allocations of £200,000 each.

The organisations, working with partners such as Age Concern and the Workers' Education Assocation, will provide personalised plans for individuals designed to improve health and prevent diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

Until now, the only way to have a personal health trainer would be to go private.

The initiative is starting with the most disadvantaged areas and will be rolled out to the rest of England in 2007.

The idea is to help individuals make healthier choices.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: "They will give support to local people in their communities and provide information to help them develop personal health plans and carry them out.

"This might include giving a pregnant woman information about local stop smoking services or accompanying a woman to a breast screening appointment.

"Equally, health trainers will identify barriers to individuals making healthier choices and help find solutions to get over them."

Experts advising the Government have concluded that there have been recent improvements in child poverty, housing and a reduction in deaths from heart disease and strokes among the under-75s.

The so-called "inequalities gap" between the healthiest and the least healthy has fallen by 22 per cent in the past six years, they said.

The Government's target is to reduce inequalities in health outcomes by at least ten per cent by 2010, measured by infant mortality and life expectancy at birth.