Men who fear their image will suffer if they go to the doctors are to be helped by a special health service.

Health visitors Ralph Saunders and Steve Chell have set up the district's first health drop-in centre for men, who are notorious for failing to visit the doctor.

Diet will be near the top of the list after Ralph and Steve conducted a survey, asking men what aspects of health were important to them.

But Ralph said many of the men questioned wanted to become hunks rather than make themselves slimmer.

The pair are the only male health visitors in Bradford and usually deal with the health of children under school age.

But their new service will be mainly aimed at 14 to 25-year-olds who want to improve their health but tend to put up with problems rather than seek medical help.

The scheme, which is being funded through Bradford Health Action Zone, coincides with an announcement by Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper that the Government wants to promote men's health. Mrs Cooper pointed out that men's health compared badly with women's.

She said men were likely to die five years earlier than women, young men were four times more likely to die from suicide or in accidents than teenage girls, and male death rates from coronary heart disease were up to five times higher than those for women.

A spokesman for Bradford Health Action Zone said: "We are ahead of the game with this project. We are trying to make services more accessible to men."

Ralph said testicular cancer was one of several issues which men did not want to consult their doctors about.

He said the centre, which would operate from the youth advice offices in Broadway every Tuesday, would also deal with other things, including sex and relationship problems, bullying, diet and exercise.

The sessions will run from 12.30 to 4.30pm and the nurses will also visit schools.

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