A North East charity is hoping to use £3m in funding with more than 80 schools in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear over the next three years to tackle the "crisis" hitting the mental and physical health of our children.
Rise - an Active Partnership - is to spend the money supporting schools to provide new activity projects, and to boost existing ones. The funding will be channelled towards our region's most deprived areas, and the woman leading the scheme is hopeful that the benefits will be felt far beyond the school gates.
This comes against a backdrop of record child poverty levels in the North East and when the region is constantly bottom of the table in a range of health metrics. We see the most suicide and self-harm and the worst rates of illnesses such as COPD.
