Overweight children get fat fighting tips from firefighters

New figures show that Great Yarmouth in Norfolk has among the highest percentage of overweight children.

East Coast Community Healthcare's (ECCH) Childhood Healthy Weight Service is taking new measures to combat the issue.

They've enlisted the help of Norfolk Fire Service to put overweight children through their paces in weekly sessions that are fun and a good way to get fit.

ECCH has also launched a new mobile web app to give parents and children recipe and keep fit ideas. The app (www.chws.info) includes a body mass index (BMI) calculator.

Figures just released from the National Child Measurement Programme show nearly a quarter of 4 to 5 year olds (24.6%) and more than a third of 10 to 11 year olds (35.5%) measured in Great Yarmouth were overweight or very overweight. The average for Norfolk is 22.3% and 32.1% respectively.

Obesity costs the NHS more than £4 billion a year so taking steps to prevent children growing into overweight adults will benefit us all.