THE first time I saw the dazzling interior of Wear Valley council's Wellness On Wheels mobile gym I was impressed. With its array of top-of-the-range gym equipment, its air conditioning and its sophisticated electronic fitness monitoring system, the WOW trailer is quite something.

But what was even more impressive was the constant stream of curious people - youngsters, adults and grandparents with grandchildren in tow, who knocked on the door wanting to look around when I was there.

My efforts to interview WOW project manager Natalie Drew kept being disrupted by new faces peering into the trailer and wanting a guided tour.

The degree of interest in the WOW trailer, which has benefited from £640,000 worth of Sport England's money, augurs well for the future.

Starting in Wolsingham on September 19, the trailer and an accompanying support vehicle will set up in different towns and villages in Wear Valley for ten weeks at a time. The aim is to persuade as many people as possible to enrol in regular workouts as part of a wider campaign in the Wear Valley district to promote exercise.

Natalie Drew, who will be spending the next three years of her life in and around the WOW trailer, can't believe the interest the mobile gym has created. "We'd only been in Crook for a day and it was full of young people. We must have had 500 people through the door without promoting it at all," she says.

As part of efforts to prepare the people of Wolsingham for the arrival of the WOW trailer, members of staff have begun leafleting homes in the area. WOW team members will also be leaving information in local shops and pubs. There are even plans to distribute special beer mats in local pubs and clubs.

A lot is riding on the success of Natalie and her team. Wear Valley District Council came up with the innovative scheme - in partnership with the local Durham Dales Primary Care Trust - in an effort to do something about worryingly high levels of ill health and obesity in the area.

Apart from obvious lifestyle changes such as cutting out smoking and eating more fruit and vegetables, the key to improved health is taking more exercise.

That is the goal of the WOW project and an independent evaluation should reveal whether Sport England, Wear Valley and all the other WOW partners have invested their money wisely.

There is no doubting the seriousness of the challenge facing the WOW team. Professor John Wilkinson heads the North-East Public Health Observatory, one of a network of research units set up around the country by the Government to monitor changes in public health.

During a visit to Prof Wilkinson's office in the Wolfson Institute at Durham University's Stockton campus a few weeks ago, he produced a shocking graph which highlights the scale of the public health problems facing the region.

Using a traffic light system to illustrate how we compare to the rest of the England, the North-East's colour is red in ten out of 39 indicators. Red signifies that the performance in that category is significantly lower than the national average or target rate.

Only the North-West, which has 11 red indicators, has a lower score in England. This means the North-East has the lowest life expectancy for men of 74.7 years, compared to 77.4 in the South-East.

For women there is a similar story, with North-East women expected to live to 79.4, the lowest in England, compared to 81.8 years in the South-West.

The North-East also weighs in with the worst figures for cancer deaths, female adult smoking and, significantly, male adult obesity (almost one in four compared to almost one in five in the South-East).

The region is also bottom of the league when it comes to eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. But these grim statistics do not dent the optimism of Wear Valley District Council.

Max Coleby is a former international distance runner who is passionate about the benefits of physical exercise on the mind as well as the body.

As the acting director of community services with Wear Valley council and one of the main movers behind the WOW project - not to mention the Great North Walk - he believes this experimental approach to improving exercise levels can have an impact.

"We believe in this and we are in it for the long term," says Max. "But what you have to remember is that WOW is just part of a whole range of initiatives developed by Wear Valley District Council to improve the health of local residents."

As well as the WOW team, the council has invested in community-based activities such as the Walking the Way to Health programme, The Great North Walk and appointing seven community physical activity co-ordinators across the district.

There is also a very active programme operating in the district's schools.

But there is no doubt that WOW is something special and different.

One of those attending Wednesday's official launch of the WOW project was Barbara Millns, who came up with the idea of a mobile fitness centre.

Barbara, who is manager of Wear Valley's Sport Action Zone, hit on the idea of taking exercise to people's homes rather than waiting for them to use existing leisure facilities.

"We wanted to get at people who don't do traditional physical exercise. These people often feel uncomfortable going to their local leisure centre," says Barbara. "We know from our fitness programmes for people who are recovering from a heart attack that if we can get them coming back for ten weeks there is a strong likelihood they will carry on."

With the idea of a mobile fitness centre in mind, Barbara talked to Technogym, an international company which equips and maintains gyms all over the UK, including in Wear Valley.

Colin Carter, area sales manager for Technogym, pointed out that they already had something similar, a mobile gym-cum-Jacuzzi, for Michael Schumacher's Ferrari motor racing team, but they could certainly look into creating a larger version for community use. After a lot of hard work, Sport England agreed to provide the bulk of funding for the WOW project.

Colin Carter, area sales manager for Technogym, is very proud of his company's handiwork. "This is bigger than the Ferrari trailer, probably the biggest mobile fitness suite in the world, and as a community facility it is unique," he says.

And this week, the WOW trailer was finally unveiled to the people of Crook.

Jenna Green, 15, from Crook, a member of the five-strong Glenholme Youth Centre team who helped inaugurate the new WOW gym, says: "It's really good. It doesn't look that big on the outside but it's really roomy inside."

Bob Emerson, 63, from Crook, was also impressed. "It is brilliant. All the screens above the equipment playing pop videos will attract the young ones. There is also tons of room," he says.

The trailer is also wheelchair-friendly.

The only downside of Wednesday's opening events was the fact that The Northern Echo team (me included) which took part in a challenge to see who could clock up the most miles in 30 minutes failed to match a team with an average age of 14.

Maybe it really is time to get fit!

* The Wellness On Wheels project is supported by the following organisations:

Wear Valley District Council

Durham Dales Primary Care Trust

Sport England

The Northern Echo (as part of the 'Chance To Live' campaign)

Northumbrian Water

Technogym

* The WOW trailer will be based at Wolsingham School and Community College in Wolsingham from September 19 until November 26. It will then move to Stanhope, where it will be based from November 27 until February 5, 2006.

www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk

/healthspectrum/